






























































































































































































































































































































































































































I* + ^viWWv * 

* 0 "°° iff 

'+ ^ V • f • °* c\ 

ffe: "W^ 'iMwM °^v °, . 

^ ^ A" ' v^Sllir* 4 A ^ 

* A o '••»'• <c % *c> 'AA* A < 

• r^CVv ^ « “> j V ^ 


* A °v 

* 4/ 'V • 

^ -4 ^ V *> -<^i i - 

> * a 6 ^ *<..s’ v v <> '<>.»’ <<j 

rA 0 » 0 A> , , , <a _ V 

<-0 o ° r -. * C> at .'■'*>» ^ 0 

0 • c^5^V> O J * «V. <, 

k ^cr 



v> 


c>> r 


^0 

• ,*► ^ -i*?- o’ V 

•• v -*■’ ••^v. % * 

L' 



*b * ± 

© N 0 


, _ .. V<V 

o* J .gfilg7 ^'V a’ 0 ^ 

■ / 'v^V V*-— : * .&♦* * 

0 ° °o / VL^J. ^ c° .• 

t* . - «*- o* ® 



V 0 

* y6 A ' 

» - ^6* 


v*0 

a A ‘“if* 

^ 0,'^ ^-'- • -aj*’ O * ’ 

*°»°* ,v o. *.,-■• ,o' 

♦ ^ V ^ f • o^ .<)' » s M' a 

*r. ^ j£> s ^ 


<y 


: ^\ ^Slvy^ 

a ■ - '•• , y..-..v , ’*v 6 ..-.-'^ 

a* 


^ v + ^ • o, "o 

t* : ^; \. 

A ^ v ' 


. O > 

: x° -c 


o J L 0 J 

‘ -- ^ -• ^ V V ; 



•’oV* 



o , _ 

**4 


v -^- 

^ A • Vp 

«V «l\ "v^ n * 


^ - 

»»- ^ r\ ^ »** 

f° v % 

c\ <p v ^ s “*% > 


* /Tl • 

" .V >u ir^ 

^ '° * A * ^ G ^ *' * • S 4 A^ *'° • » • 4 «C> 

0 c> A^ .f„ "V 0 ^ 

/ . _c^V O * +rr 0° 

.*»• K ^ o v 


V>*_ 

o > 


rs 




















• • 


4 O 

r k -|,1\\\ XX v ^ 

of s . . ^* • * 0 ° ^ °<U * • ' 1 * f° * « * o ,J A 

,'. V A° ^ N V y ’ **' <Sft aV *> l^Ly <> V" 

a ° 0 ^ ^ <^ ** ^ *k 

v ^ ^ V J? ^ '*J 

s s ./O’ ^ '••** A C> y ## «* A ^ 'o.A o^ ^ ^ 

A . t * - «, <y ry <,»"•♦ ^o A v . **•„ *b ,0 o»o ^ 

' ^fH'* ^ ''' C *'^11^* °r ^ '^|jpf ^ ° 

_ «» M v . T) '-"a WIT* 

% > 

" ' *> 


A 

- QMS H xw ~ '■' • ~vssr*i ssgg* • <-* r • 

> 0 ’V. ^<5* -S&ffl?: J- 0 ^ -W-IBN^-* < 

V'*• •••* y y ‘^-’ y y *• .//■ y 

• A<- y *i<0v8#yflk ^V. <0 * 

: v«* m mM&\ °bv > * 

p.* yy *W; yy * 

V A *o '^ W * * < 


/A a vT „S k-fl |J V t -5 * V, A v *r(\\8» />lv <Pa <LV ♦ ' 

*/A\ >v r^lSm: :Mm: ^<0 ^ 

/,* % *yW; / y M* ** A **? 

s A^ <V *o,>* 0^ \5 S 4 A <v 

A.f .*'•'•♦ ^ 6 «" • * ^b «V" . 11 # 

y ♦Vv7%*> ■* v c O Sx>jr??Z - A 

^ .‘41§*« :-^W” n.v* :0Mbt~ 



o o5 >? ^ *'^UV^V 

\V # 1 1 * ^° >> *»*« 5 / 

^ V .;••• c> ,0 **v% > ( 

a c, *■ «/A *. «• .-v v. *> 

" r$» ♦ r(V\ «» / 9 l C <A ♦ 

; v^ - Am t ^v • 

• Avr. 


•'* # A 0 V ^ 

v% C\^ s ♦ • . ^ 

... y y />^-. 

r“ • A^"V * 0? * «.^y Aslx’,*--- 7 “ aV-*. = * A'f’n 

'' a a- *'«•■'' a y'■v??!** a <*. ’-x»•* y y 

A t * -i ^ o o 0 v 4 ♦ ^ o a^ . «• * «^ y o" c © " « 9 ^b 

3 ♦ Wfe.y, ^ c ° y^ - ■y c . a 

* J£tl//6><> C " 1 3b „ vx A »- 

5 • o V • 

f* *A 

♦ rv ' 

r ^ » •• ' f 

%. *•■’* 

^ v -V*o. /^w 

■ ^ y g 

- >v ' ft 
A> vr 

y v 


<qS o j) 

y . v y y) v * 

• y av ♦ y\y^ a 0 y <a ♦ f 

• A 'f/W; y : .®i^* *A ■.% 

.« A <r^ -«..* y y *•-...■> a <r, • 

V? 4 ^ S*>/r??^ * \r C • ^ ** 

u. A *■ A 

. o V . PfWmatf* * ^ 0 


y .. ■., *k 

• - y ''itistk. ^ 

«. \x A *• Kili//s>t> 

. —, . __ • O > 

y v^* y % ^ y V ; --‘ y 

^ y .* Vi'. > v N ,; ■». a y , > • .• *, > v 

y y a> a- .>va v y y .- ■^^ ~. 

>y. 




y v v 

- c> <(■, *• 

: *y 


_ ^ ^ o *WV b A o * y^<*V _o 

^ ^ f 0 V ^e-o 0 A^ **' 1- Tjt 0 

V’ **V- cy Ap > V % ' .*■••- CV A" , 

- ** yy ^ ^ a*’ /- 

^ A *'o. A* G* ' 

0 ^ l I 6 A> 0 N ® 4 ^V*3 











































THE DOCTOR’S 
RECREATION SERIES 


CHARLES WELLS MOULTON 

General Editor 


VOLUME ELEVEN 


























/O 

















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































I 



am 




HlilillllllMHI 




IIMlW iMwrtMm I MBiWii l 


flixMl 


I'MiuoiiituimuimiiiniiiiiiKOii 




























































































































































































































































































A BIOGRAPHI 

CYCLOPEDIA 

MEDICAL HIST 

CAL 

OF 

ORY 



EDITED BY 

Charles Mells flDoulton. 


1906 

THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO. 
New York AKRON, O. Chicago 


























LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 


APR 11 1906 


Copyright Entry 

CLASS Cc XXc. No, 

> / 


COPY 'B.' 


.A 




Copyright, 1906, by 

THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO. 



ft 


made by 

THE WERNER COMPANY 
AKRON* OHIO 


l 




CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Biographical Cyclopedia. 13-197 

THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE 
FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE 
NINETEENTH CENTURY 

CHAPTER I 

Introduction—Division of the History of Medicine into 
three great Chronological Periods—History of Medi¬ 
cine previously to its Introduction into Greece— 
Origin of Medicine—State of Medicine among the 
Egyptians—Among the Assyrians—Among the Jews 
—Introduction of Medicine into Greece—Chiron— 
-^sculapius—Machaon—Podalirius — The Asclepiadae 
—Records in the Temples of vEsculapius—Ancient In¬ 
scriptions — Pythagoras — Democritus—Heraclitus— 
Acron—Herodicus—Gymnastic Medicine . 201-218 

CHAPTER II 

An Account of the Opinions and Practice of Hippocrates 
and his Contemporaries—Remarks on the History and 
Education of Hippocrates—High Estimation in which 
he was held—Remarks on his Character and Acquire¬ 
ments—On his Works—Account of his Principles and 
Doctrines, his Physiology, Pathology, Anatomy and 
Practice.218-229 


CHAPTER III 

History of Medicine from the time of Hippocrates until 
its Introduction into Rome—Establishment of the 
Dogmatic Sect—Plato—Aristotle—School of Alex¬ 
andria—Erasistratus Herophilus—Division of Medi¬ 
cine into different Departments—Into the Dogmatic 
and Empiric Sects—Their General Principles . 229-239 

CHAPTER IV 

On the State of Medicine among the Romans from its 
first Introduction into Rome until the Time of Galen 
—Roman Superstitions—Archagathus—Cato—Ascle- 

piades—Themison—Origin of the Methodic Sect— 
Thessalus—Soranus—C. Aurelianus—Doctrines of the 
Methodics — Pneumatics and Eclectics — Aretaeus — 
Archigenes—Celsus, his Doctrines and Practice- 
Condition of Physicians in Romer-Pliny—Dios- 
corides.239-258 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER V 

Account of the opinions and practice of Galen His his¬ 
tory and education—Remarks on his character and 
writings—His Physiology, Anatomy, Pathology, and 
Practice.259-265 


CHAPTER VI 

An account of the successors of Galen—Decline of medi¬ 
cal science—Sextus Empiricus—Oribasius—Aetius— 
Alexander Trallianus—Paulus Eginetus—Account of 
the state of Medicine among the Arabians—Conquest 
of the Arabians—Their patronage of science—Inven¬ 
tion of Chymistry — Ahrun — Serapion — Alkhendi— 
Rhazes—Ali-Abbas — Avicenna—Mesue—Albucasis— 
Avenzoar—Averroes—Estimate of the merits of the 
Arabic school.265-282 


CHAPTER VII 

State of Medicine in Europe after the Extinction of the 
Arabian School—Medical Schools of Monte-Cassino 
and Salerno — Medicina Salernitana — Constantinus 
Africanus—Actuarius—Rise of the Study of Anatomy 
—Mondini—Gilbert—Effect of the Crusades, of the 
Reformation, and of the Invention of Printing, on 
the Literature of Europe—On Medical Science— 
Alchymists—Establishment of Universities—Linacre— 
Chymical Physicians — Paracelsus — Appearance of 
New Diseases.282-302 


CHAPTER VIII 

General view of the State of Medicine during the Six¬ 
teenth Century—Revival of the Hippocratean School 
— Account of the Galenists — The Chymists — The 
Anatomists—Vesalius, Fallopius, Eustachius . 302-308 

CHAPTER IX 

State of Medicine during the Seventeenth Century—The 
Chymical and Mathematical Sects — Progress of 
Anatomy—Fanatics—Chymical Physicians—Sylvius— 
Willis—Sydenham—Mathematical Physicians . 308-319 

CHAPTER X 

Account of the sect of Vitalists—Van Helmont—Stahl, 
his System—Hoffmann, his System, Pathology, Influ¬ 
ence of his doctrines—Solidism—Baglivi—Disciples 
of Stahl.Tio-'ni 


CHAPTER XI 

Introductory remarks—General progress of medical sci¬ 
ence—Boerhaave, character of his Writings, his Path¬ 
ology—Gaubius—Gorter—Haller, his Character, Path- 


CONTENTS 


* 

PAGE 

ological Doctrines, his Disciples, his Oponents—Whytt 
—Semi-animists—Sauvages—Cullen, his Pathology, 
and Practice, his Pupils—Brown, his System—Dar¬ 
win, his System ..... 332 - 35 ° 


CHAPTER XII 

Remarks on the State of Practical Medicine at the Con¬ 
clusion of the Eighteenth Century—State of Medi¬ 
cine in France, Lieutaud—State of Medicine in Ger¬ 
many, De Haen—State of Medicine in Italy, Mor¬ 
gagni, Burserius, Rasori—Epidemics—Improvements 
in Pharmacy. 35°-357 


CHAPTER XIII 

Cursory Remarks on the State of Practical Medicine 
since the Commencement of the Present Century— 
Difficulty of acquiring Medical Experience—State of 
Medicine in Great Britain—Pathologists of France— 
Physiologists of Germany—Medical Journals—Medi¬ 
cal Societies—Schools of Medicine—Suggestions for 
the Improvement of Medical Science . . 357-367 



ILLUSTRATIONS 


Medicine . 

PAGE 

Frontispiece 

Dr. Faust . 

. • • 84 

The Quack Doctor 

246 

The Viv i sector . 

. . . 312 






A 


ABDALLATIF, or Abd-ul-Latif (1162-1231). A celebrated 
physician and traveler, and one of the most voluminous 
writers of the East; was born in Bagdad. An interesting 
memoir of Abdallatif, written by himself, has been pre¬ 
served; with additions by Ibn-Abu-Osaiba, a contemporary. 

ABDALMALEK (about 740). Born at Basra. A Moham¬ 
medan doctor, instructor of Harun-al-Rashid, noted for his 
extraordinary memory. He is the reputed author of the 
romance of Antar. 

ABERCROMBIE, DAVID (about 1702). This Scottish phy¬ 
sician was sufficiently noteworthy half a century after his 
(probable) decease to have his Nova Medicines Praxis re¬ 
printed at Paris in 1740. Of this early metaphysician, noth¬ 
ing biographical has, however, come down, save that he 
was a Scotchman (“Scotus”) born at Seaton. He was 
living early in the 18th century. 

ABERCROMBIE, JOHN (1780-1844). Born in 1780 at Aber¬ 
deen, took his M.D. in Edinburgh (1803), and, establishing 
a practise there, after Dr. Gregory’s death (1821) was 
recognized as the first consulting physician in Scotland. 
He is best known by his superficial works on The Intel¬ 
lectual Powers (1830) and The Moral Feelings (1833). He 
died suddenly, November 14, 1844. 

ABERCROMBY, PATRICK (1656-1716?). Was the third son 
of Alexander Abercromby of Fettemeir in Aberdeenshire, 
and brother of Francis Abercromby, who was created by 
James II. Lord Glasford. He was bom in Forfar. 
As throughout Scotland, he could have had there the bene¬ 
fits of a good parish school; but it would seem from after 
events that his family was Roman Catholic, and hence, in 
all probability, his education was private. This, and not 
the unproved charge of perversion from Protestantism in 
subserviency to James II., explains his Roman Catholicism 
and adhesion to the fortunes of that king. But, intending 
to become a doctor of medicine, he entered the University 
of St. Andrews, where he took his degree of M.D. in 1685. 
The work with which Abercromby’s name is permanently 
associated is his Martial Achievements of the Scots Nation, 
issued in two noble folios, vol. i, 1711, vol. ii, 1716. The 
date of his death is uncertain. It has been variously 
assigned to 1715, 1716, 1720, and 1726, and it is usually 
added that he left a widow in great poverty. That he lived 


14 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


in 1716 is certain, as Crawford speaks of him (in his 
Peerage, 1716) “as my worthy friend.” 

ABERNETHY, JOHN (1764-1831). Surgeon; bom in Lon¬ 
don April 3, 1764, the grandson of the Rev. John Aber- 
nethy (1680*1740),an Irish Presbyterian clergyman and con¬ 
troversialist. He was educated at Wolverhampton grammar- 
school, and in 1779 was apprenticed to the assistant-surgeon 
at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. In 1787 he was himself 
elected assistant-surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s, and soon 
after began to lecture. At first, he manifested extraordinary 
diffidence, but his power soon developed itself, and his lec¬ 
tures at last attracted crowds. In 1813 he was appointed 
surgeon to Christ’s Hospital, in 1814 professor of Anatomy 
and Surgery to the College of Surgeons, and in 1815 full 
surgeon to St. Bartholomew’s, a post which he resigned in 
1829. His practise increased with his celebrity, which the 
eccentricity and rudeness of his manners contributed to 
heighten. He died at Enfield, April 28, 1831. Of his works 
(4 vols. 1830) the most important is his Constitutional 
Origin and Treatment of Local Diseases (1809). See Life 
by George Macilwain (3d ed. 2 vols. 1857). 

ABU-BEKR MOHAMMED IBEN TO PH AIL (1100- 85). A fa¬ 
mous Arabic physician, mathematician, poet, and philoso¬ 
pher. He was born in Andalusia and died in Morocco. 
His chief extant philosophical work is entitled Hai ibn 
Yakzan, The Living, the Son of the Awake. It depicts the 
natural progressive development of the human faculties till 
nature and God are adequately known in virtue of a com¬ 
munion of the human intellect in the divine thought. To 
secure this communion, positive religion is valuable for the 
vulgar, but religious doctrines are only exoteric presenta¬ 
tions of the mystic truth. Consult: Ritter, Geschichte der 
Philosophie (Hamburg, 1829-31); English by Morrison 
(Oxford and London, 1838-46). Also Munk, Melanges de 
Philosophie Juive et Arabe (Paris, 1859). 

ACCUM, FREDERICK (1769-1838). A Westphalian chemist 
who during 1810-20 greatly promoted the introduction of 
gas-lighting in England. 

ACHARD, FRANZ CARL (1753-1821). A Prussian chemist; 
born at Berlin, April 28, was the first to turn Marggraff’s 
discovery of the presence of sugar in beet-root to com¬ 
mercial account. 

ACKERMANN, JOHN CHRISTIAN GOTTLIEB (1756-1801). 

A learned physician and professor of medicine; born at Zeu- 
lenroda, in Upper Saxony. In 1786 he became professor of 
medicine at the University of Altorf, in Franconia, occupy- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 15 

ing first the chair of chemistry, and then, from 1794 till his 
death, that of pathology and therapeutics. 

ACLAND, SIR HENRY WENTWORTH DYKE (1815-1900). 
An English physician; born at Exeter, and educated at 
Oxford. He was one of the founders of the Oxford Uni* 
versity Museum, and in 1859 published, with Ruskin, an ac¬ 
count of the aims of that institution. He accompanied the 
Prince of Wales to America in i860. In 1894 he tendered 
his resignation as regius professor of medicine at Oxford, 
which position he had occupied since 1858. His more im¬ 
portant publications include the Memoir on the Visitation 
of the Cholera in Oxford in 1854, and Village Health 
(1884). 

ADDISON, THOMAS (1793-1860). Physician; bom near 
Newcastle, and graduated in medicine at Edinburgh in 1815. 
He settled in London, and in 1837 became physician to 
Guy’s Hospital. His chief researches were on pneumonia, 
phthisis, and especially on the disease of the supra-renal 
capsules, known as Addison's Disease. 

AEBY, CHRISTOPH THEODOR (1835-85). A Swiss anat¬ 
omist and anthropologist; bom in the neighborhood of Pfalz- 
burg, Lorraine. At Basel and Gottlinger he studied 
medicine. He was made professor of anatomy at Bern in 
1863; and received the same degree at the University of 
Prague in 1884. His fame rests chiefly upon his contribu¬ 
tions to anthropology, notably a new craniometric method. 
He was one of the first men to adduce the effects of the 
influence of atmospheric pressure on the joints of the 
human frame. His works embrace: Untersuchungen iiber 
die Fortpflanzungsgeschwindigkeit der Reizung in der quer- 
gestreiften Muskelfaser; Fine neue Methode zur Bestim- 
mung der Sch'ddelfarm von Menschen und Saugetieren; Die 
Schddel form en des Menschen und der Afien; Ueber das 
Verhdltnis der Mikrokephalie zum Atavismus. 

AESCULAPIUS. In the Heathen Mythology, the god of medi¬ 
cine, was the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis. He 
was educated by the centaur Chiron, who taught him the 
art of healing; and his skill enabled him to cure the most 
desperate diseases. But Jupiter, enraged at his restoring to 
life Hippolytus, who had been tom in pieces by his own 
horses, killed him with a thunderbolt. At Epidaurus, JEscu- 
lapius’s statue was of gold and ivory, with a long beard, the 
head surrounded with rays, a knotty stick in one hand, 
and the other entwined with a serpent; the figure was 
seated on a throne of the same materials as the statue, and 
had a dog lying at its feet. The Romans crowned him with 


16 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

laurel, to represent his descent from Apollo; and the Phli- 
asians represented him as beardless. The cock, raven, and 
the goat were sacred to this deity. In many places votive 
tablets were hung up, showing the names of those cured 
and the diseases of which they were healed by his assistance. 

AGASSIZ, JEAN LOUIS RODOLPHE (1807-73). Naturalist; 
was born at Motier, in the Swiss canton of Freiburg, May 
28, 1807/and studied at Bienne, Lausanne, Zurich, Heidel¬ 
berg, and Munich. He graduated in medicine in 1830, his 
Latin description of the Fishes of Brazil having the year 
before elicited a warm encomium from Cuvier. In 1831-32 
he worked in Paris, and in 1832 accepted a professorship at 
Neuchatel. In 1833 he commenced the publication of his 
Researches on the Fossil Fishes, and in 1836 undertook those 
studies on the glacial phenomena of the Alps whose fruit 
was his Etudes sur les Glaciers (1840) and his Systime 
Glaciaire (1847). In 1839 he published a Natural History 
of the Fresh-water Fishes of Central Europe. In 1840-44 
he and his assistants spent the summers at a station on the 
Alps, and in the following autumn he visited the Scottish 
Highlands. In 1846-48 he lectured with success in the 
principal cities of the United States, and in 1848 was elected 
to the chair of Natural History at Harvard. He spent the 
winter of 1850-51 in an expedition to the Florida Reefs. 
In 1851-52 he taught at Charleston, S. C., and lectured at 
Washington, before the Smithsonian Institution. In 1855- 
63 he and his daughters conducted a young ladies’ school 
at Cambridge; he declined chairs at Zurich and Paris, 
and received the Order of the Legion of Honor. Of 
his Contributions to the Natural History of the United 
States, he lived to issue only four of ten 4to vols. To a 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, established at Harvard 
in 1858, Agassiz gave all his collections; and four years of 
incessant work here so undermined his health that he de¬ 
cided upon a trip to Brazil, ultimately transformed into an 
important scientific expedition, described in A Journey in 
Brazil . He died at Cambridge, December 14, 1873. See 
Life and Correspondence, edited by Mrs. Agassiz (1886) ; 
the monograph by C. F. Holder (1892); and Life, Letters , 
and Works, by Jules Marcou (1896). 

AGNEW, CORNELIUS REA (1830-88). An American physi¬ 
cian; born in New York City, graduated from Columbia 
College in 1849, and from the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in 1852. In 1858 he was appointed surgeon-gen¬ 
eral of New York state, and during the Civil War was 
medical director of the New York Volunteer Hospital. He 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


17 


was prominent in the United States Sanitary Commission. 
He assisted in founding the Columbia School of Mines in 
1884, founded the Brooklyn Eye and Ear Hospital. He 
became president of the State Medical Society in 1872, one 
of the trustees of Columbia College in 1874, an d was a pro¬ 
fessor in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He was 
a member of many medical and scientific societies, and con¬ 
tributed much to the literature of the diseases of the eye 
and ear. 

AGNEW, DAVID HAYES (1818-92). An American surgeon 
and medical writer; born November 24, died, March 22; 
for many years professor of surgery at the University of 
Pennsylvania. He was also the operator in several impor¬ 
tant cases, notably that of President Garfield. He published 
Practical Anatomy (1867) I Anatomy and Its Relation to 
Medicine and Surgery; Principles and Practice of Surgery 
(1878), etc. 

AIKIN, JOHN (1747-1822). Born at Kibworth, Leicester¬ 
shire, January 15, 1747; was the son of John Aikin, D.D. 
(1713-80), tutor from 1757 of Warrington Unitarian 
Academy. After studying at Edinburgh and London, he 
took his M.D. at Leyden (1780), and practised in Chester, 
Warrington, Yarmouth, and London; but in 1789 retired 
to Stoke-Newington, where he died December 7, 1822. A 
friend of Priestley, E. Darwin, John Howard, and Southey, 
he was a voluminous author; his works including Lives of 
Howard, Selden, and Usher; the General Biography (10 
vols. 1799-1815) ; and the well-known Evenings at Home 
(6 vols. 1792-95), written in conjunction with his sister, 
Mrs. Barbauld. His daughter, Lucy Aikin, was born at 
Warrington, November 6, 1781, and died at Hampstead, 
January 29, 1864. She was author of Epistles on Women 
(1810) ; Memoir of John Aikin, M.D. (1823) ; Memoirs of 
the Courts of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. (6 vols. 
1818-33); and Life of Addison (1843). See her Memoirs 
(1864). 

AINSWORTH, WILLIAM FRANCIS (1807-96). An English 
physician, geologist, and Eastern traveller; born at Exeter. 

AKAKIA, LE DOCTEUR. The name of a noted French phy¬ 
sician of the sixteenth century, (Martin Akakia, Grecized 
from the French name sans-malice) , borrowed as a pseudo¬ 
nym by Voltaire in his Diatribe du Docteur Akakia. This 
was a brilliant satire, covering with ridicule Maupertuis and 
the Berlin Academy, of which he was president. King 
Frederick II., however, had it publicly burned (1752). 

2 


x8 a BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

AKENSIDE, MARK (1721-70). Poet and physician; born at 
Newcastle, November 9, 1721. The son of a butcher, at the 
age of seven he was accidentally lamed for life in his 
father’s shop. He was destined for the Presbyterian min¬ 
istry, and in 1739 was sent to study theology at Edinburgh, 
but soon abandoned it for medicine. He took his M.D. 
at Leyden in 1744, and practised at Northampton, then at 
Hampstead, and finally in London. His success as a practi¬ 
tioner was never very great, owing to his haughty and 
pedantic manner, which Smollett sketches to the. life in 
Peregrine Pickle; but at Leyden he had formed an intimacy 
with Jeremiah Dyson, and this rich and generous friend 
allowed him £300 a year. He died in London, June 23, 
1770, having nine years earlier been appointed one of the 
physicians to the queen. He contributed verses to the 
Gentleman’s Magazine as early as 1737; and in 1744 a P" 
peared his Pleasures of the Imagination, a didactic poem, 
begun in his eighteenth year, to which is owing whatever 
celebrity attaches to his name. In 1772 Dyson published 
his poems (best ed. by Dyce, with Life, 1834). 

ALBERS, JOHANN FRIEDRICH HERMANN (1805-67). A 
German physician; professor of pathology at Bonn. He 
established there an asylum for the treatment of insanity 
and nervous diseases, and was director of the pharmaco¬ 
logical cabinet. His atlas of pathological anatomy (Bonn, 
1832-62, 287 plates) and books on various branches of medi¬ 
cal science were regarded as standard works, and are still 
useful and interesting. 

ALBERT, EDUARD (1841-1900). An Austrian surgeon. He 
was born at Senftenberg, in Bohemia, and studied medicine 
at Vienna. In 1873 he was made professor of surgery at 
Innsbruck. From 1881 until his death he was clinical pro¬ 
fessor of surgery at Vienna. His published works include: 
Beitrdge zur Operativen Chiyurgie (Vienna, 1878-80), Diag- 
nostik der Chirurgischen Krankheiten (seventh edition, 
Vienna, 1896); and a text-book of surgery in four volumes, 
which has passed through several editions. Albert’s original 
researches resulted in valuable contributions to surgical 
diagnosis, to operative surgery, and to other branches of his 
profession. 

ALBUCASIS, or Abul-Casim, or Abul-Kasim El Zahrawi 

(about 1106). Born at Zahra al Tasrif, near Cordova, 
Spain; died at Cordova. An Arabian physician, author 
of Al-Tasrif, a famous resume of Arabian medical science. 
According to some he lived a century earlier. His work 
was partially translated into Latin and twice into Hebrew. 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


19 


ALCMiEON. A Greek physician and naturalist, who lived in 
the last century B. C. He was a native of Croton, in 
Italy, and is said to have been a pupil of Pythagoras. He 
made important discoveries in anatomy, and was the first to 
practise dissection. He wrote a book On Nature, of which 
we have fragments. 

ALEXANDER (about 6th century). A Greek medical writer; 
born at Tralles in Lydia, in the 6th century. 

ALIBERT, JEAN LOUIS (1766-1837). Physician to Louis 
XVIII., of France. As chief physician of the hospital of 
St. Louis he devoted himself especially to a study of dis¬ 
eases of the skin. His chief work was Traite Complet des 
Maladies de la Peau (1806-27). 

ALLEN, HARRISON (1844-87). Anatomist; born in Phila¬ 
delphia. He graduated M.D. at the University of Pennsyl¬ 
vania, 1861; was assistant surgeon in the United States 
army, 1862-65; professor of comparative anatomy, and medi¬ 
cal zoology in the University of Pennsylvania, 1865-78, and 
of physiology, 1878-95. He was the author of numerous 
articles and books on the subjects connected with his pro¬ 
fessorship, and of Studies in the Facial Region (1874) » 
Analysis of the Life Form in Art (1875) ; System of Human 
Anatomy (1880). 

ALLEN, JOHN (1771-1843). Born near Edinburgh; took his 
M.D. there in 1791; traveled with Lord and Lady Holland 
in France and Spain (1801-5), and was warden of Dulwich 
College (1811-20), and then its master. He wrote 41 
articles for the Edinburgh Review and The Rise of the 
Royal Prerogative (1830). 

ALSTON, CHARLES (1683-1760). A botanical and medical 
writer; was born in the west of Scotland. He was a matt 
of great ability, and an assiduous student of science. His 
most valuable work is his Lectures on Materia Medica. 

ALTON, JOHANN SAMUEL EDUARD D’ (1803-54). A Ger¬ 
man anatomist, son of the anatomist and archaeologist 
Joseph Wilhelm Eduard d’Alton. He studied medicine at 
Bonn, and became professor of anatomy at the Academy of 
Arts in Berlin in 1827. In 1834 he was made professor of 
anatomy and physiology at Halle. His writings include: 
Handbuch der menschlichen Anatomie (Leipzig, 1848-50) ; 
De Monstris (Halle, 1853) ; and De Monstrorum Duplicium 
Origine (Halle, 1849). 

ALTSCHUL, ELIAS (1812-65). An Austrian physician of 
Jewish extraction. He was born at Prague, and studied 
medicine, graduated at the University of Vienna in 1832. 


20 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


He became professor of medicine at the University of 
Prague in 1848, and in 1853 founded the first homeopathic 
magazine in Austria, under the title of Monatsschrift fur 
Theoretische und Praktische Homoopathie. He introduced 
homeopathy at the University. His principal works are: 
Dictionnaire de medecine oculaire (Vienna, 1856, 2 volumes; 
Lehrbuch der Physiologischen Pharmacodynamik (Prague, 
1850-52); Das Therapeutische Polaritatsgesetz (Prague, 
1852). 

AMATUS, LUSITANUS (1511-68). A Portuguese physician, 
of Hebrew descent. He is said to have been the second 
author to describe the valves in the veins. He wrote an 
account of seven hundred remarkable cases in medicine and 
surgery (1551-66). 

AMBLER, JAMES MARKHAM MARSHALL (1848-81). Sur¬ 
geon and Arctic explorer; born in Virginia; died in the Lena 
Delta, Siberia. Educated at Washington and Lee Uni¬ 
versity and the Medical College of the University of Mary¬ 
land; he practised medicine in Baltimore, 1870-74; entered 
the navy as assistant surgeon, 1874; and was selected as 
volunteer for that post to the “Jeanette” arctic expedi¬ 
tion under George W. De Long, 1879. When their vessel 
sank, June 13, 1881, he accompanied his chief along the 
Lena, and was alive at the date of the last entry in De 
Long’s journal, October 30, 1881, but probably died the 
following day. His remains were discovered by Chief En¬ 
gineer Melville, March 23, 1882. Upon his body were found 
memoranda on Ice Formed by Sea Water, and Remarks on 
Snow Crystals, published in De Long’s Journal (Boston, 
1883). 

AMMAN, JOHANN KONRAD (1669-1724). A Swiss physi¬ 
cian; born at Schaffhausen, Switzerland. In 1692 he pub¬ 
lished an essay, entitled Surdus Loquens (the deaf mute 
speaking), in which he gave an account of the results of his 
efforts in teaching a girl deaf and dumb from birth to artic¬ 
ulate. He made no mystery of his process, but invited those 
who found anything difficult or indistinct in his explanations 
to apply to him, “who, according to the light granted him, 
will refuse nothing to any man.” In 1700 he published 
another essay, entitled, Dissertation upon Speech. These 
two works were of great value to Heinicke, Braidwood, and 
De l’Epee, who at a later period organized schools for the 
instruction of mutes. 

AMMAN, PAUL (1634-91). A physician and botanist; born 
at Breslau, August 30. In 1662 he received the degree of 
doctor of physics from the University of Leipsic, and in 1664 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


21 


was admitted a member of the society Natures Curiosorum t 
under the name of Dryander. He died February 4. 

AMUSSAT, JEAN ZULEMA (1796-1856). A French sur¬ 
geon; entered the army, was assistant surgeon under Esqui- 
rol in the Saltpetriere Hospital, and prosector at the Paris 
Faculty of Medicine. He improved, and invented many 
surgical instruments, and was the first to show the import¬ 
ance of torsion of arteries in hemorrhage. He wrote on the 
nervous system, lithotomy, etc. An operation for opening 
the large intestine at a point where it is not covered with 
peritoneum was perfected and first practised by Amussat. 
It is still performed and it bears his name. Among his 
publications are researches regarding the nervous system 
(1825) and a memoir on the torsion of arteries (1829), the 
latter winning a prize from the Institute. 

ANAXILAUS, of Larissa. A physician and Pythagorean 
philosopher, banished from Rome by Augustus, B. C. 28, 
>n the charge of practising the magic art. This accusation 
appears to have originated in his superior skill in natural 
philosophy, by which he produced effects that the ignorant 
attributed to magic. (Euseb., Chron. ad Olymp. clxxxviii; 
St. Iren, i, 13; Plin. xix, 4, xxv, 95, xxviii, 49, xxxii, 52, 
xxxv, 50.) 

ANDERSON, ROBERT (1750-1830). Editor of the British 
Poets; for the last forty years of his life lived in Edinburgh. 

ANDRAL, GABRIEL (1797-1876). A distinguished French 
physician and pathologist; born in Paris. In 1827 he was 
called to the chair of hygiene, in 1830 to that of pathology, 
in the University of Paris. Andral may be said to have 
been the first to apply an analytical and inductive method 
of pathology. His Medical Clinic (1824) established his 
reputation, and his Summary of Pathological Anatomy 
(1829) was equally successful. Other works of importance 
are his Essay on Pathological Haematology (1843); Course 
in Pathology — Interne; and Investigations into the Modifi¬ 
cation of the Relative Proportions of Haematic (Blood) 
Principles. 

ANDREWS, THOMAS (1813-85). An Irish chemist and 
physicist; born at Belfast. He studied medicine and the 
physical sciences at Glasgow, Paris, Edinburgh, and Dublin. 
After practising medicine for several years in his native 
city, he became, in 1845, professor of chemistry at Queen’s 
College, which position he resigned in 1879. Andrews car¬ 
ried out a number of important researches on the heat de¬ 
veloped during various chemical transformations, and on 
the nature of ozone. His most important contribution to 


22 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


science, however, was the discovery (1861) of the con¬ 
tinuity of the liquid and gaseous states. He was the first 
to find that for every gas there is a temperature (called the 
critical temperature) above which the gas cannot be lique¬ 
fied, no matter how great the pressure exerted upon it. Be¬ 
low that temperature the gas may be partly liquefied, gas 
and liquid being separated by the surface of the latter. Pre¬ 
cisely at the critical temperature, however, the surface of 
separation disappears, and the substance enters into homo¬ 
geneous state, combining the properties both of the liquid 
and the gaseous states. This continuity of state renders it 
possible to extend to liquids the laws of gases, and thus 
establishes an intimate relationship between the properties 
of matter in the two states. 

ANDROMACHUS. A physician of the emperor Nero; he is 
called “the elder,” to distinguish him from his son. Andro- 
machus was the first to bear the title of “Archiater,” or 
chief physician. He was the discoverer of a celebrated 
medicine and antidote called from him “ theriaca Andro- 
machi.” 

ANEL, DOMINIQUE (1679-1730). A French surgeon. He 
introduced improvements in the operations for aneurism and 
■fistula lacrymalis. 

ANTOMMARCHI, FRANCESCO (1780-1838). Napoleon’s phy¬ 
sician from 1818; a native of Corsica, and was already an 
anatomist of some celebrity at Florence, when he was in¬ 
duced to go to St. Helena. Napoleon received him with 
mistrust, but ultimately gave him his full confidence, and at 
his death left him 100,000 francs. After his return to 
Europe, he published Les Derniers Moments de Napoleon 
(1823). During the Polish revolution he did duty at War¬ 
saw as director of military hospitals. He afterwards went 
to the West Indies, and died in Cuba. 

ARBUTHNOT, JOHN (1667-1735). Physician and wit. This 
much-loved friend of Swift and Pope, was born at Arbuth- 
nott, Kincardineshire, April 29, 1667. His father was the 
(Episcopal) parish minister, who was ejected after the 
Revolution. One of John’s brothers fought under Dundee 
at Killiecrankie, and another in Mar’s rebellion; John was, 
according to Chesterfield, a Jacobite by prejudice, a re¬ 
publican by reflection and reasoning. He studied at Aber¬ 
deen and University College, Oxford, but took his M.D. 
degree at St. Andrews (1696). Settling in London, where 
before this he had taught mathematics, in 1697 he attracted 
notice by his Examination of Dr. Woodward’s Account of 
the Deluge. Accident called him into attendance on Prince 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


23 


George of Denmark; in 1705 he was appointed physician to 
the queen, and her death in 1714 was a severe blow to his 
prosperity. In 1715, along with Pope, he assisted Gay in 
Three Hours After Marriage, a farce that yet proved an 
absolute fiasco. He pronounced the Harveian oration in 
1727, and died February 27, 1735. Utterly careless of literary 
fame, Arbuthnot was the chief, if not the sole author of the 
brilliant Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus, first published in 
Pope’s works (1741); and his too was the celebrated 
History of John Bull (1712). See his Life and Works , by 
G. A. Aitken (1892). 

ARCHIGENES. A Greek physician; a native of Apamea in 
Syria, who practised in Rome in the time of Trajan, 
98-117 A. D. He was the most celebrated of the eclectics 
and was the author of a treatise on the pulse, to which 
Galen added a commentary. 

ARETiEUS (about 100 A. D.). A Greek physician of Cap¬ 
padocia, considered to rank next to Hippocrates. The first 
four books of his great work, preserved nearly complete, 
treat of the causes and symptoms of diseases; the other 
four, of the cure. There is an edition by Adams (1856), 
and an English translation (1837). 

ARGAND, AIME (1755-1803). Physician and chemist; in¬ 
ventor of the Argand lamp ; born at Geneva, and lived 
for a time in England. 

ARMSTRONG, JOHN (1709-79). Physician and poet; born 
about 1709, in Castleton manse, Liddesdale, Roxburghshire. 
He took the Edinburgh M.D. in 1732, and soon after com¬ 
menced practise in London. In 1736 he published a nause¬ 
ous poem. The (Economy of Love; in 1744 his principal 
work, The Art of Preserving Health,* didactic poem in four 
books. In 1746 he was appointed physician to the London 
Soldiers’ Hospital, in 1760 physician to the forces in Ger¬ 
many, whence he returned on half-pay in 1763, to resume 
practise. With Fuseli, the painter, he made a continental 
tour (1771) ; he died in London from a fall, September 7th. 
The friend of Thomson, Mallet, Wilkes, etc., Armstrong 
seems to have been a reserved, indolent, and splenetic man, 
“who quite detested talk;” kind-hearted withal, and frugal. 

ARMSTRONG, JOHN (1784-1829). Physician; born May 8, 
at Ayres Quay, near Bishop-Wearmouth, where his father 
was superintendent of glass-works. He graduated M.D. 
of Edinburgh (1807), commenced practise at Bishop-Wear¬ 
mouth, in 1811 was chosen physician to Sunderland In¬ 
firmary, and, having greatly extended his reputation by a 


24 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


work on Typhus (1816), in 1818 removed to London, where 
from 1819 to 1824 he was physician to the Fever Hospital. 
See his Life by Dr. Boott (2 vols., 1833). His son, John 
Armstrong (1813-56), in 1853 became bishop of Grahams- 
town. 

ARNOTT, NEIL (1788-1874). A Scotch physician; was born 
at Arbroath, the son of a Catholic farmer, and died in 
London, March 22, having from 1811 till 1855 car¬ 
ried on a large practise there. In 1832 he invented the 
water-bed; and his Warming and Ventilating (1834) de¬ 
scribes the Arnott Stove and Arnott Ventilator. 

ASCLEPIADES (about 100 B. C.). A Greek physician; born 
at Prusa, in Bithynia, who flourished during the early part 
of the 1st century B. C. He seems to have wandered about 
as a not very successful teacher of rhetoric before he finally 
settled at Rome, where, by the practise of medicine, he had 
risen in Cicero’s time to considerable fame and wealth. 

ASELLIO, GASPARO (1581*1626). An Italian physician; 
discoverer of the lacteal vessels. 

ASPINWALL, WILLIAM (1743-1823). An American physi¬ 
cian; born at Brookline, Mass. He studied medicine in 
Philadelphia, and practised in his native town. He served 
as surgeon with the Revolutionary army, and later became 
interested in the subject of vaccination and established that 
preventive in American practise. 

ASTRUC, JEAN (1684-1766). A French medical professor 
who by a work on Moses founded the modern criticism of 
the Pentateuch. 

ATKINS, JOHN (1685-1757). An English surgeon who, in 
1721, accompanied the ships “Swallow” and Weymouth” on 
a voyage to West Africa and America, returning in 1723. 
He published the Navy Surgeon (1732), and A Voyage to 
Guinea , Brazil, and the West Indies (1735). 

ATJENBRUGGER, VON, (or Auenbrugg) Leopold (1722-1809). 
A Viennese physician who introduced the method of 
percussion diagnosis—that is, the method of applying the 
ear to the chest and noting the sounds that follow a stroke 
of the hand on the patient. He published the results of his 
important investigation in a treatise entitled lnventum 
Novum ex Percussione Thoracis Humani Interni Pectoris 
Morbos Detegendi (1761), which marks an epoch in the 
modern history of medicine. The book attracted little at¬ 
tention until it was translated and illustrated by Corvisart 
in 1808. He also wrote two treatises on insanity. 

AVE-LALLEMANT, ROBERT CHRISTIAN BERTHOLD 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


2 5 


(1S12-84). A German physician and traveler, brother of 
Friedrich Christian Benedict Ave-Lallemant. He practised 
medicine for many years at Rio Janeiro. His principal 
works are Reise durch Siidbrasilien (1859) ; Fata Morgana 
(1872), and Wanderungen durch die Pflanzenwelt der Tro j 
pen (1880). 

AVENZOAR—(properly Ibn Zohr, c. 1072-1162). Arabian 
physician and author on medicine at Seville in Spain; 
praised by his pupil Averroes. 

AVICENNA (980-1037). Arab philosopher and physician; 
born near Bokhara, was physician to several sultans, and 
for some time vizier in Hamadan, in Persia, where he died 
in 1037. His philosophy was Aristotelianism modified by 
Neoplatonism; his medical system was long the standard. 
See Forget’s edition of his Book of Theorems (Leyden, 
1892). 


B 

BABINGTON, BENJAMIN GUY (1794-1866). Orientalist; 
was born in Guy’s Hospital, and was physician there 1837- 
55 . 

BABINGTON, WILLIAM (1756-1833). An Irish physician 
and mineralogist, who lived in London. 

BACHE, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1801-81). An American 
surgeon; great-grandson of Benjamin Franklin. He estab¬ 
lished, at New York, a laboratory which supplied the medi¬ 
cal department of the navy, and rendered important service 
to the Union armies during the Civil War, by running the 
laboratory at his own expense. 

BACHE, FRANKLIN (1792-1864). Physician and chemist; 
son of Benjamin Franklin Bache, born in Philadelphia 
October 25; died there March 19. He received his medical 
diploma from the University of Pennsylvania in 1814, and 
was appointed surgeon in the army. In 1816 he began the 
practise of his profession in his native city; from 1826 to 
1832 he was professor of chemistry in Franklin Institute; 
from 1831 to 1841, professor of chemistry in the Philadelphia 
College of Pharmacy, and from 1841 to 1864 was professor 
of chemistry in Jefferson Medical College. He was president 
of the American Philosophical Society in 1854 and 1855, and 
of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum Corporation at the time of 
his death. He was the author, compiler and editor of a 
number of standard works on chemistry and cognate sub¬ 
jects, and a large contributor to scientific journals. In con¬ 
junction with Dr. George Wood he prepared a Pharma¬ 
copeia, the basis of the present United States Dispensatory. 


26 


A BIOGRAPHICAL, CYCLOPEDIA 


BAGLIVI, GIORGIO (1669-1707). Italian physician; born in 
Ragusa, Sicily; died in Rome. He became a disciple of the 
celebrated physiologist and anatomist, Malpighi, was ap¬ 
pointed professor of medicine in the College de Sapienza, 
Rome, by Pope Clement XL, and afterward became profes¬ 
sor there of anatomy. In opposition to the system known as 
Galenism in medicine, he founded that of solidism, which 
locates all disease in the solid portions of the human an¬ 
atomy. His principal writings were published under the 
title of Opera Omnia Medico-Practica et Anatomica (1704). 

BAIKIE, WILLIAM BALFOUR (1825-64). Traveler, natural¬ 
ist, and philologist, was born at Kirkwall, Orkney, August 
27, and, having studied medicine in Edinburgh, in 1848 be¬ 
came a naval surgeon. He was appointed surgeon and 
naturalist to the Niger expedition in 1854, and, succeeding 
through the captain’s death to the command of the Pleiad, 
he penetrated 250 miles higher than any previous traveler; 
but in his second expedition of 1857, the Pleiad was wrecked, 
and he was left to continue his work alone. He founded 
Lukoja, at the junction of Quorra and Benue (now military 
headquarters of the Royal Niger Company), and within five 
years had opened the navigation of the Niger, constructed 
roads, collected a native vocabulary, and translated parts of 
the Bible and Prayer-book into Haussa. He died at Sierra 
Leone, December 12. 

BAILLARGER, JULES GABRIEL FRANQOIS (1809-91). A 
French physician; born at Montbazon (Indre-et Loire). He 
devoted himself principally to mental disorders, and in 1842 
obtained a prize from the Academy of Medicine for his ad¬ 
mirable essay entitled Des hallucinations, des causes qui les 
produisent et des maladie qu’elles caracterisent, published in 
Vol. XIII. of the Memoires of the society. In association 
with Longet and Cerise, he founded in 1843 a review espe¬ 
cially devoted to the study of nervous affections and mental 
diseases, under the title Annales medico-psychologiques du 
systeme nerveux. In recognition of his splendid services 
during the second outbreak of the cholera in 1849 Baillarger 
was decorated with the medal of the Legion of Honor. 

BAILLIE, MATTHEW (1761-1823). Anatomist, brother of 
Joanna Baillie, was born in Shotts manse, October 27. His 
mother was a sister of the great anatomists, William and 
John Hunter; and Matthew, after seven years at Glasgow 
and Oxford (1773-80), studied anatomy under his uncle Wil¬ 
liam, and in 1783 succeeded to his practise and lectureship. 
Working often sixteen hours a day, he made a very large 
income—one year, £10,000—so that he purchased the estate 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


27 


of Duntisborne in Gloucestershire, and at his death there, 
on September 23, left a fortune besides of £80,000. See Life 
by Wardrop, prefixed to his Works (2 vols. 1825), the most 
important of which, on Morbid Anatomy, was published in 
1795 - 

BAILLOU, GUILLAUME DE (1538-1616). A French physi¬ 
cian. He was appointed by Henry IV. first physician to 
the Dauphin in 1601, and is reputed to have been the first 
to make known the nature of croup. He wrote Adversaria 
medicinalia, etc. 

BALARD, ANTOINE JEROME (1802-76). A French chem¬ 
ist. He was born at Montpellier, and died in Paris. He 
began his career as a pharmacist, but was subsequently 
appointed professor of chemistry at the Sorbonne and at 
the College de France, Paris. In 1868 he was made In¬ 
spector-General of Superior Instruction. Balard carried out 
a number of interesting investigations both in pure and 
applied chemistry, but is best known as the discoverer of 
the element bromine, which is found in the mother-liquors 
remaining after the extraction of common salt from sea¬ 
water. 

BALFOUR, JOHN HUTTON (1808-84). A celebrated botan¬ 
ist, was the author of numerous works upon botany: Class- 
book of Botany; Phyto-theology, or Botany and Religion; 
The Plants of Scripture; and Elementary Botany for 
Schools. Dr. Balfour was professor of botany in the Uni¬ 
versity of Glasgow from 1841 to 1845, when he migrated to 
Edinburgh University, and regius keeper of the Royal 
Botanic Garden and Queen’s Botanist for Scotland. For 
thirty years (until 1877) he was Dean of the Medical 
Faculty of the University of Edinburgh, and was afterwards 
assessor of that university. 

BARBEU-DUBOURG, JACQUES (1709-1779). Bom in May- 
enne, February 12; died at Paris, December 14. A French 
physician, naturalist, and philosophical writer. He wrote 
botanical and medical works, Petit code de la raison hu- 
maine (1774) ; Chronographie (1753) ; Le calendrier de Phil- 
adelphie (1778), etc. 

BARCLAY, JOHN (1760-1826). Scottish anatomist; born in 
Perthshire, died in Edinburgh. He studied divinity and 
was licensed as a preacher at Dunkeld. In 1789 he com¬ 
menced the study of anatomy, and graduated in 1796, when 
he visited London and studied under Dr. Marshall. On his 
return to Edinburgh in 1797, he gave lectures on anatomy. 
He published several works on subjects connected with the 
sciences of medicine and surgery; he also made some effort 


28 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


toward reforming the system of nomenclature then in use 
among anatomists. He bequeathed his valuable anatomical 
collection to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, 
where it is known as Barclayan Museum. He published 
Description of the Arteries of the Human Body (1812). 

BARD, SAMUEL (1742-1821). An American physician. He 
was born in Philadelphia and educated at Columbia College 
and the Edinburgh Medical School. He organized the 
medical school at Columbia College, and became dean of 
the faculty. While New York was the seat of the Federal 
Government, he was Washington’s family physician. In 
1813 he became president of the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in New York. His published works comprise a 
study of the diseases of sheep, The Shepherd's Guide 
(1807) ; a treatise on Angina Suffocativa, and a Manual of 
Midwifery (1807). 

BARKER, FORDYCE (1818-91). Physician, and writer on 
medical subjects; born at Wilton, Maine, May 2; died in 
New York City May 30. He was graduated at Bowdoin Col¬ 
lege in 1837, and received his medical education in Boston 
and Paris, and began to practise in Norwich, Connecticut. 
Having settled in New York in 1850, ten years later, he be¬ 
came obstetrical physician and professor of midwifery at 
Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City. He had 
held similar positions in the Medical School at Brunswick, 
Maine, and in the New York Medical College. He was 
president of the New York Academy of Medicine, received 
many foreign honors, and had a very lucrative practise. 
He wrote standard treatises on Seasickness and Puerperal 
Diseases . 

BARNES, JOSEPH K. (1817-83). American surgeon; born 
in Philadelphia; died in Washington, D. C. He was edu¬ 
cated in the medical department of the University of Penn¬ 
sylvania; became assistant surgeon in the army in 1840, and 
served at various posts through the Mexican War. At 
the beginning of the Civil War he was summoned from 
Oregon and assigned to duty in the office of surgeon- 
general. In 1863 he was appointed a medical inspector, with 
the rank of colonel, and in September of the same year 
was promoted to brigadier-general. In 1865 he was breveted 
major-general, United States Army. He was surgeon- 
general of the army from 1864 till 1882, when he retired. 

BARRY, MARTIN (1802-55). Physician and animal embry¬ 
ologist; born at Fratton, Hampshire, England; died at 
Beccles, in Suffolk. He received his medical education in 
London, and at the University of Edinburgh, receiving at 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


29 


the latter the degree of M.D. in 1833. His observations of 
the penetration of spermatozoa into the ovum of the seg¬ 
mentation of the yolk of mammals were very important 
additions to the knowledge of animal embryology. Dr. 
Barry acted as house-surgeon to the Edinburgh Royal 
Maternity Hospital, and benevolently gave his professional 
services to the poor. 

BARTHEZ, PAUL JOSEPH (1734-1806). A celebrated French 
physician. He studied medicine at Montpellier, became pro¬ 
fessor in the university in 1761, and acquired European re¬ 
nown as a practitioner and lecturer. In his principal work, 
Nouveaux elements de la science de Vhomme (1778), he set 
forth a new theory of life. According to this, there is in 
the living organism a vital principle, which should be dis¬ 
tinguished, on the one hand, from the conscious and think¬ 
ing mind; on the other, from the physical forces producing 
material transformations in the body. The life of each 
separate organ is but a modus, a particular manifestation of 
the “vital principle,” and should not be regarded as a com¬ 
ponent part of the latter. Barthez was a keen thinker; he 
produced no experimental facts that might render his hy¬ 
pothesis immediately valuable to the biologist; yet his en¬ 
lightened views had the effect of imparting a new and 
powerful impulse to the progress of science. 

BARTHOLIN, KASPER (1585-1629). Born at Malmo, 
Sweden, February 12; died at Copenhagen, July 13. A 
Danish physician and scholar. He became professor of 
oratory in the University of Copenhagen in 1611, of medi¬ 
cine in 1615, and of theology in 1624. He wrote a text-book 
on anatomy which was highly esteemed in the 17th century, 
Institutiones anatomicce (1611). 

BARTHOLIN, THOMAS (1616-80). Born October 20; died 
December 4. A Danish physician and scholar, son of 
Kasper Bartholin. He was professor of mathematics in the 
University of Copenhagen in 1646, and of medicine 1647-61. 
He wrote on anatomy and medicine, and re-revised (1641) 
his father’s Institutiones anatomicce. 

BARTLETT, ELISHA (1805-55). American physician and 
author; born in Smithfield, R. I., and died there. He grad¬ 
uated from the medical department of Brown University in 
1826, and delivered the course of lectures on pathological 
anatomy at the Berkshire Medical Institute, in Pittsfield, 
Mass., in 1832. In 1836 or 1837 he was elected the first 
mayor of Lowell. He subsequently lectured at Dartmouth 
College, and in Transylvania University and the universities 
of Maryland and New York. In 1851 he became professor 


30 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


of materia medica and medical jurisprudence in the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, which place he 
held until his death. He published Essay on the Philosophy 
of Medical Science (1844) ; Fevers of the United States 
(1850) ; and a volume of poems, entitled Simple Settings in 
Verse for Portraits and Pictures in Mr. Dickens 1 Gallery 

(1855). 

BARTLETT, JOSIAH (1729-95). Physician and statesman; 
first governor of New Hampshire; was born at Amesbury, 
Massachusetts, November 21; died in New Hampshire, May 
19. He studied and practised medicine; discovered and ap¬ 
plied new remedies. In 1765 he was a delegate to the legisla¬ 
ture. He was a zealous Whig, and as a member of the Con¬ 
tinental Congress, was the first to vote for the Declaration of 
Independence and the second to sign it. Dr. Bartlett was ap¬ 
pointed general naval agent (1776); elected to Congress 
(1778); successively chief justice of the court of com-* 
mon pleas, muster-master of troops, justice of the superior 
court, chief justice, and was three times chosen governor of 
New Hampshire, the governorship of which state was his 
last office. 

BARTON, BENJAMIN SMITH (1766-1815). An American 
naturalist, who was the first professor of botany and 
natural history in a college in the United States. He was 
born in Pennsylvania, studied for two years at Edinburgh, 
and afterwards graduated at Gottingen. He settled at Phil¬ 
adelphia, and soon obtained a considerable practise. In 
1789 he was appointed to the professorship above mentioned 
in Philadelphia College; he was made professor of materia 
medica in 1795, and on the death of Dr. Rush in 1813 he 
obtained the chair of practical medicine. In 1802 he was 
chosen president of the American Philosophical Society. 
Barton was the author of various works on natural history, 
botany, and materia medica. By his lectures and writings 
he may be said to have founded the American school of 
natural history. 

BASEILHAC, JEAN (1703-81). A French surgeon, better 
known as Frere Come. He was educated at the Hotel-Dieu, 
Paris, and for some time was physician in ordinary to the 
Archbishop of Bayeux. He invented the “trocar,” used in 
cystolomy, and wrote Recueil de pieces importantes con- 
cernant la taille faite par le lithotome cache (1751), and 
Nouvelle methode d’ extraire la pierre de la vessie urinaire 
par dessus le pubis (1779). 

BASIL, L. BASILIUS (-1818). A Bulgarian physician and 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 31 

monk, the leader of the heretical sect of the Bogomiles. 
He was put to death by burning. 

BASS, GEORGE (-1812. A naval surgeon who in 1796-98 

explored the strait that bears his name between Tasmania 
and Australia. He died a South American miner. 

BASTWICK, JOHN (1593-1654). A Puritan doctor of Col¬ 
chester, who under Laud lost his ears in the pillory, and 
was imprisoned (1637-40). 

BATTEY, ROBERT (1828-95). Born at Augusta, Ga., No¬ 
vember 26; died at Rome, Ga., November 8. An American 
physician and surgeon. He was professor of obstetrics in 
the Atlanta Medical College (1873-1875), and editor of the 
Atlanta Medical and Surgical Journal (1873-76). He per¬ 
formed in 1872 what has since been known as Battey’s 
operation for the removal of the ovaries. 

BAUDELOCQUE, JEAN LOUIS (1746-1810). Born at Heilly, 
Picardy; died at Paris. A French surgeon. He studied 
under Solayres, and became accoucheur of the Hospital de 
la Maternite. Author of JJ Art des Accouchements (1781). 

BAUDENS, JEAN BAPTISTE LUCIEN (1804-57). Surgeon; 
born at Aire, Pas-de-Calais, April 3; died at Paris, Decem¬ 
ber 3. He became surgeon in the French army in Algeria, 
in 1830, where he founded a hospital in which he taught 
surgery and anatomy for nine years. He returned to France 
in 1841; becoming director of the military hospital of Val- 
de-Grace, and serving as member of the sanitary commis¬ 
sion of the army of the Crimean War. He wrote Nouvelle 
methode des amputations (1842), and La guerre de Crimee, 
etc. (1857). 

BAUME, ANTOINE (1728-1804). A French chemist, known 
for his discoveries in applied chemistry. He became pro¬ 
fessor in the college of pharmacy in Paris, and founded 
a large establishment for the preparation of drugs. He 
published many papers on the application of scientific 
principles to useful purposes in the arts and manufac¬ 
tures. Among his inventions and improvements were 
processes for bleaching, purifying saltpetre, manufacturing 
sal-ammoniac, etc. His publications include: Elements de 
pharmacie (1762) and Chimie experimental et raisonnee 
(3 vols., 1773). Baume’s areometer is still in common use 
in laboratories. 

BAUMGARTNER, KARL HEINRICH (1798-1886). Born at 
Pforzheim, Baden, October 21; died at Baden-Baden, De¬ 
cember 11. A noted German physiologist, professor of clini¬ 
cal medicine at Freiburg 1824-62. He was the author of 


32 


A BIOGRAPH ICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


Beobachtungen uber die Nerven und das Blut (1830); Lehr - 
buck der Physiologie (1853), etc. 

BAYLEY, RICHARD (1745-1801). American physician; born 
in Fairfield, Conn.; died on Staten Island, N. Y. After 
studying medicine in England, chiefly in the London hos¬ 
pitals and under Dr. Hunter, he returned to America in 
1776 as a surgeon in Gen. Howe’s army, but settled in New 
York the following year. He was the first professor of 
anatomy in Columbia College (i 79 2 )> an d for a time health 
officer of the port of New York, where his vigorous ad¬ 
vocacy of proper quarantine laws was finally successful. A 
careful student of his profession, he suggested a new method 
of treatment for croup, and maintained (1797) that in its 
origin, yellow fever was due to local causes and was not 
contagious. He published: Cases of the Angina Tracheatis , 
with the Mode of Cure (1781); Bssay on the Yellow Fever 
(1797) ; Letters on Yellow Fever (1798). 

BEARD, GEORGE MILLER (1839-83). American physician 
and hygienic writer; born in Mortville, Conn.; died in New 
York. He made a specialty of the study of stimulants and 
narcotics, hypnotism, spiritualism, etc. Among his works 
were : Our Home Physician (1869); Eating and Drinking 
(1871) ; Stimulants and Narcotics (1871) ; American Nerv¬ 
ousness (1881); Sea-sickness (1882). 

BEAUMONT, WILLIAM (1785-1853). An American surgeon, 
born at Lebanon, Conn. He is noted for discoveries in 
the processes and laws of digestion, made in watching the 
operations of the stomach in the case of Alexis Saint 
Martin. On June 6, 1822, Saint Martin, then supposed to be 
18 years old, while at Mackinac, Mich., was accidentally 
shot, receiving the entire charge of a musket in his left 
side, the muzzle of the gun being about three feet from his 
body. This discharge tore away portions of his clothing, 
fractured two of his ribs, lacerated his lungs, and lodged 
in his stomach. Dr. Beaumont, who was then stationed at 
Mackinac as a surgeon in the United States Army, restored 
Saint Martin to health within a year, though the aperture 
made by the shot was never closed. Two or three years 
afterward, Beaumont commenced a series of experiments 
upon the stomach of the young man, studying its operations 
and secretions, the action of the gastric juice, etc. These 
experiments he continued from time to time, his patient pre¬ 
senting the spectacle of a man enjoying good health, appe¬ 
tite, and spirits, with an opening in his stomach through 
which the action of that organ could be satisfactorily noted 
from the exterior. Beaumont was the first to obtain the 


OF MEDICAL, HISTORY 


33 


gastric juice from a living human being, and he demon¬ 
strated, beyond a doubt, its chemical properties and digestive 
powers. He published the results of his experiments in 1833. 
Afterwards he resigned from the army, and practised medi¬ 
cine in Saint Louis, Mo., until his death. 

BECHER, JOHANN JOACHIM (1635-82). German chemist; 
born in Speyer. He traveled and resided in various parts 
of Germany, Holland, Italy, Sweden, and Great Britain, 
investigating Cornish and Scotch mines. He wrote a num¬ 
ber of works on chemistry, the chief of which is entitled 
Physica Subterranea. In it he expounds his views on the 
composition of inorganic bodies, the constituents of which, 
according to him, are three earthy principles, the verifiable, 
the combustible, and the mercurial. The metals consist of 
these three earths in different proportions, and whenever a 
metal is calcined the combustible and mercurial earths are 
expelled, and the verifiable earth forms the residual calx ; . 
When these principles are combined with water different 
salts are formed, and a fundamental acid, which exists in all 
the others. This theory was subsequently developed by 
Stahl, who, by means of the principle of phlogiston explained 
not only the calcination of metals, but the phenomena of 
combustion in general. 

BECK, LEWIS CALEB (1798-1853). An American physician, 
chemist and mineralogist, born in Schenectady, N. Y. He 
was graduated at Union College, was professor of chemistry 
in Rutgers College, and later in Albany Medical College. 
He was the author of a number of books and papers on 
botany and chemistry, and of an elaborate report on the min¬ 
eralogy of New York, based upon his researches as mineral¬ 
ogist of the New York Geological Survey of 1835-41, and 
published as one of the volumes of the Natural History of 
the State of New York (1842). 

BEDDOES, THOMAS (1760-1808). Physician, born at Shiff- 
nal, Shropshire; passed from Bridgnorth grammar-school 
to Pembroke College, Oxford, and studied medicine at Edin¬ 
burgh and London. In 1788, after taking his M.D. at Ox¬ 
ford, he was appointed reader in chemistry there, but his 
sympathies with the French Revolution led to his resigna¬ 
tion (1792). During 1798-1801 he carried on at Clifton a 
“pneumatic institute” for the cure of diseases by the inhala¬ 
tion of gases, with Sir Humphrey Davy for his assistant. 
His temperance tale, Isaac Jenkins (i 793 ), was highly popu¬ 
lar in its day. See Life by Dr. Stock (1811). 

BEDFORD, GUMMING S. (1806-70). American physician; 
born in Baltimore, Md.; died in New York. He was grad- 
3 


34 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


uated at Mount St. Mary’s, Emmittsburg, Md., 1825; took 
his medical degree at Rutgers Medical College, 1829; and 
spent some years in special study in Europe. In 1833 he 
was appointed professor in the medical college at Charles¬ 
ton, S. C.; subsequently was called to the Medical College, 
Albany, N. Y.; and in 1836 settled in New York. He made 
a specialty of obstetrics; was one of the proj ectors of the 
University Medical College; and introduced into the United 
States obstetrical clinics for the gratuitous treatment of 
poor women. His principal publications, Diseases of 
Women and Children and Principles and Practice of Ob¬ 
stetrics, have had a large circulation in the United States 
and Europe. 

BELL, JOHN,of Antermony (1691-1780). Asiatic traveler; 
born in Campsie parish, Stirlingshire. Studied for the 
medical profession. In 1714 he went to St. Petersburg, and 
was physician to Russian embassies to Persia (1715-18), to 
China through Siberia (1719-22), and again to Persia 
(1722). In 1737 he settled at Constantinople as a merchant, 
but about 1746 returned to Scotland, where he died at 
Antermony, July 1. His Travels were published in 1763. 

BELL, JOHN, Surgeon (1763-1820) ; was born at Edinburgh, 
May 12, and died at Rome, April 15. His Principles of 
Surgery (1801-7) was re-edited by his brother, Sir Charles 
Bell, in 1826. 

BELL, SIR CHARLES (1774-1842). Famous for his dis¬ 
coveries in the nervous system, was born in Edinburgh, the 
youngest of five sons of William Bell, an Episcopal clergy¬ 
man. In 1804 he proceeded to London, where he lectured 
with great success on anatomy and surgery. In 1807 he 
distinguished between the sensory and motor nerves in the 
brain. In 1812 he was appointed surgeon to the Middlesex 
Hospital, which his clinical lectures raised to the highest 
repute. To study gunshot wounds, he went to Haslar 
"Hospital after Corunna in 1809, and after Waterloo took 
charge of an hospital at Brussels. In 1824 he became senior 
professor of Anatomy and Surgery to the Royal College of 
Surgeons, and in 1826 head of the new medical school (Uni¬ 
versity College), but soon resigned. Knighted in 1831, and 
professor of surgery from 1836; he died suddenly. His 
works include Anatomy of Expression in Painting (1806) ; 
Anatomy of the Brain (1811) ; Animal Mechanics (1828) ; 
Nervous System of the Human Body (1830) ; and The Hand 
(Bridgewater Treatise, 1833). See Pichot’s Vie et Travaux 
de Sir Charles Bell (1859), and his Correspondence (1870) 
—To the same family belongs the Edinburgh surgeon, 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 35 

Joseph Bell (born December 2, 1837), the original of “Sher¬ 
lock Holmes.” 

BELL, THOMAS (1792-1880). Naturalist, was born at Poole, 
Dorsetshire, October 11, and in 1813 entered Guy’s Hospital, 
where from 1817 till 1861 he held the post of dental surgeon, 
whilst also lecturing on comparative anatomy. In 1836 he be¬ 
came professor of zoology in King’s College, London. 
Elected in 1828 a Fellow of the Royal Society, and from 1840 
to 1853 its secretary, he was also president of the Linnsean 
Society (1853-61), and first president of the Ray Society 
(1844). He wrote British Quadrupeds (1837; 2 ed. 1874), 
British Reptiles (1839), etc. Retired from practise, about 
i860 to the Wakes of Selborne, which he purchased from 
Gilbert White’s grandnieces, and died there March 13. 

BELLINI, LORENZO (1643-1704). An Italian anatomist and 
physician. He studied medicine under Redi, was professor 
of anatomy at Pisa, and in Florence was physician to the 
Grand Duke Cosmo, and also senior consulting physician 
to Pope Clement XI. Among his discoveries were the 
action of the nerves on the muscles and the uriniferous 
ducts, known as Bellini’s tubes. He left also an original 
and curious book of poetry, the Bucchereide (1729). 

BENNETT, JOHN HUGHES (1812-75). Physician, bom in 
London, August 31, and died at Norwich, September 25, 
having been professor of the institutes of medicine in Edin¬ 
burgh University, 1847-74. His investigations are largely 
embodied in his Text-book of Physiology (1870-71). 

BERARD, JOSEPH FREDERIC (1789-1828). French physi¬ 
cian; born and died in Montpellier. When only 20 years of 
age he wrote a thesis entitled Theory of Natural Medicine, 
or Nature Considered as the True Physician, and the Phy¬ 
sician as an Imitator of Nature. Pie afterward went to 
Paris, where he was engaged to write in the Dictionary of 
Medical Science. In 1816 he returned to Montpellier as 
professor of therapeutics in a private course of lectures to 
the medical students of the college. At this period he pub¬ 
lished a work explanatory of the Doctrines of the Medical 
School of ^Montpellier. With Rouzet, he published Dumas’ 
work on Chronic Diseases, with instructive commentaries. 
In 1823 he also published in Paris his work on The Rela¬ 
tions of the Physical and the Moral Organism, as a Key to 
Metaphysics and the Physiology of Mind. In this he ex¬ 
plains his own views of human nature and the principles of 
life, and his opposition to the views of Cabanis. He also 
took occasion to publish at the same time> a manuscript 


36 A BIOGRAPHICAL, CYCLOPEDIA 

letter of Cabanis, on Primary or Final Causes, accompanied 
by numerous annotations. 

BERENDT, KARL HERMANN (1817-78). German ethnolo¬ 
gist; born in Dantzic. After studying medicine he began to 
practise in Breslau, where he lectured in the university. In 
1851 he went to Nicaragua and thence to Vera Cruz, where 
he devoted some years to ethnological study and re¬ 
search. He subsequently traveled in Yucatan and Guate¬ 
mala, making a careful study of Mayan dialect. He pub¬ 
lished Analytical Alphabet of the Mexican and Central 
American Languages (1869) ; Los escritos de Don Joaquin 
Garcia Icazbalceta (1870); Los trabajos linguisticos de Don 
Pio Perez (1871) ; Cartilla en lengua Maya (1871). 

BERGMAN, TORBERN OLOF (1735-84). A Swedish chem¬ 
ist; from 1758 a professor at Upsala. 

BERLIN, RUDOLF (1833-97). A German oculist; born at 
Friedland (Mecklenburg-Strelitz). He studied at Got¬ 
tingen, Berlin, and other universities; was connected as an 
instructor with the University of Tubingen and the Tech¬ 
nical Institute of Stuttgart, and in 1889 was appointed pro¬ 
fessor of ophthalmology at the University of Rostock. The 
results of his investigations concerning the presence of 
foreign bodies in the vitreous humor, the anatomy and path¬ 
ology of the lacrymal gland, and other subjects, appeared in 
technical journals. He was among the first to make a sys¬ 
tematic comparative study of diseases of the eye, and in 
1882 established a Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Augen- 
heilkunde. 

BERNARD, CLAUDE (1813-78). Physiologist, born near 
Villefranche, July 12; studied medicine at Paris, and in 1841 
became assistant at the College de France to Magendie, with 
whom he worked until his own appointment in 1854 to the 
chair of General Physiology, and whom he succeeded in 1855 
as professor of Experimental Physiology. He was elected to 
the Academy in 1869, and died at Paris, February 10. His 
earliest researches were on the action of the secretions of the 
alimentary canal, the pancreatic juice, the connection be¬ 
tween the liver and nervous system, etc., for which he re¬ 
ceived prizes from the Academy (1851-53). Later researches 
were on the changes of the temperature of the blood, the 
oxygen in arterial and in venous blood, the opium alkaloids, 
curarine, and the sympathetic nerves. His Legons de Physi¬ 
ologic Experimental (1865) is a standard work. See Mal- 
loizel, L’ CEuvre de Claude Bernard (1881). 

BERNIER, FRANCOIS (?-1688). A French physician and 
traveler, born at Angers. He took his degree of doctor at 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


37 


Montpellier, departed for the East about 1654, and visited 
Syria, Egypt, Arabia, and India, in the last of which coun¬ 
tries he resided for twelve years in the capacity of physi¬ 
cian to the Great Mogul. On his return to France he pub¬ 
lished an account of his travels in India, Les voyages de 
Bernier (1699). This work is delightful in style and accu¬ 
rate in the delineation of manners and customs, as well as 
in the description of places. 

BERTHOLLET, COUNT CLAUDE LOUIS (1748-1822). Chem¬ 
ist; was born at Talloire in Savoy, December 9. He studied 
at Turin, came to Paris in 1772, and in 1781 was elected a 
member of the Academy of Sciences. He aided Lavoisier in 
his researches on gunpowder and in forming the new chem¬ 
ical nomenclature, and accepted his antiphlogistic doctrines; 
in 1785 he showed the value of chlorine for bleaching. Fol¬ 
lowing Priestley, he showed ammonia to be a compound of 
hydrogen and nitrogen. He was made a senator and a 
count by Napoleon, yet he voted for his deposition in 1814, 
and on the Bourbon restoration was created a peer. He died 
November 6th. 

BERZELIUS, BARON JOHAN JAKOB (1779-1848). One of 
the greatest of chemists; was born on a farm in East Goth¬ 
land, Sweden, August 29, studied at Upsala for a doctor; 
and died at Stockholm—his home from 1806—on August 7. 
His multiplied and accurate analyses established the laws of 
combination on an incontrovertible basis; and to him we 
owe our system of chemical symbols. He discovered the 
elements selenium, thorium, and cerium, and first exhibited 
in the metallic form calcium, barium, strontium, columbium 
or tantalum, silicium, and zirconium. 

BICHAT, MARIE FRANQOIS XAVIER (1771-1802). One of 
the greatest anatomists and physiologists; was born Novem¬ 
ber 11, at Thoirette, Department of Jura, and studied in Paris 
under Pierre Joseph Desault (1744-95), who adopted him as 
his son, and whose surgical works he edited. In 1797 he be¬ 
gan giving lectures, and in 1800 was appointed physician to 
the Hotel-Dieu. Worn out by his unremitting labors, he died 
of fever, July 22. He was the first to simplify anatomy and 
physiology by reducing the complex structures of the organs 
to the simple or elementary tissues, marking an epoch in 
both sciences. 

BIGELOW, JACOB (1787-1870). An American physician and 
botanist. He was born in Sudbury, Mass.; graduated at 
Harvard in 1806, and began the practise of medicine in 
Boston in 1810. He was for more than forty years physi¬ 
cian to the Massachusetts General Hospital, and for a long 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


38 

time professor of materia medica and clinical medicine in 
Harvard. In 1820 he was one of the committee of five who 
formed the American Pharmacopoeia, and assisted in estab¬ 
lishing the nomenclature which substituted a single for a 
double word when possible. He was also the originator of 
Mount Auburn Cemetery. His works include Nature in 
Disease (1854) ; A Brief Exposition of Rational Medicine 
(Philadelphia, 1858) ; History of Mount Auburn (i860), and 
many papers on medicine and botany, chief among the latter 
being his Florula Bostoniensis (1814). For many years he 
was president of the Massachusetts Medical Society. 

BIRD, ROBERT MONTGOMERY (1805-54). A practising 
physician; born at Newcastle,, Delaware, and died at Phila¬ 
delphia. Besides two successful tragedies, he wrote Calavar , 
a Mexican Romance (1834) > Nick of the Woods (1837), 
and other novels. 

BIRKBECK, GEORGE (1776-1841). An English physician 
and philanthropist; born at Settle, in Yorkshire. He early 
evinced a strong predilection for scientific pursuits; and in 
1799, after graduating as doctor of medicine, he was ap¬ 
pointed to the chair of natural philosophy at the Anderson- 
ian Institution of Glasgow. In the following year he de¬ 
livered, for the benefit of the working-classes, a gratuitious 
course of scientific lectures, which were continued during 
the two following years and proved eminently successful. 
He removed to London in 1804, and there he endeavored 
to prosecute his philanthropic schemes, at first without much 
encouragement, but ultimately with marked success. In 
1827 he contributed to found the Mechanics’ Institute, his 
coadjutors being Bentham, Wilkie, Cobbett, and others. He 
was appointed director of the institute, which he had origin¬ 
ally endowed with the sum of £3,700, and held the office till 
his death in December. 

BISCHOF, KARL GUSTAV (1792-1870). A German chemist 
and geologist; born near Nuremberg, January 18, and in 1882 
became professor of chemistry in Bonn, where he died, No¬ 
vember 30. His writings include technical treatises of bot¬ 
any, chemistry and geology, the most valuable being a 
Manual of Chemical and Physical Geology, which went 
through several editions. Between 1837 and 1840 he began 
a series of important experiments on inflammable gases in 
coal-mines, and on safety-lamps, and wrote an essay on the 
subject of avoiding explosions. 

BISCHOFF, THEODOR LUDWIG WILHELM (1807-82). A 
German anatomist and physiologist; born in Hanover, Octo¬ 
ber 28; died in Munich, December 5. He studied at Bonn 




OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


39 


and Heidelberg, becoming in 1836 extraordinary professor 
and in 1843 ordinary professor of anatomy and physiology at 
the latter university. From 1844 to 1855 he filled the same 
chair at Giessen, where he founded a physiological institute 
and anatomical theater, and from 1855 to 1878 at Munich. 
Bishoff’s studies were mainly in embryology and biology. 

BLACK, JOSEPH (1728-99). Chemist; born, a Scotch- 
Irish wine-merchant’s son, at Bordeaux, and educated at 
Belfast, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. In his famous M.D. thesis 
(1754) he showed that the causticity of lime and the alka¬ 
lies is due to the absence of the fixed air or carbonic acid 
present in limestone and the carbonates of the alkalies. On 
Cullen’s removal in 1756 to Edinburgh, Black succeeded him 
as professor of Anatomy and Chemistry in Glasgow, but 
soon after exchanged duties with the professor of the Insti¬ 
tutes of Medicine, practising also as a physician. Between 
1756 and 1761 he evolved that theory of latent heat on 
which his scientific fame chiefly rests. In 1766 he succeeded 
Cullen in the chair of Medicine and Chemistry in Edin¬ 
burgh, and henceforward devoted himself to teaching. See 
Prof. Robinson’s preface to Black’s Lectures (2 vols. 1803). 

BLACKMORE, SIR RICHARD (i6so?-i729). Poetaster; born 
at Corsham, Wilts, and educated at Westminster and Ox¬ 
ford, taking his B. A. in 1674. First a schoolmaster, then a 
London physician (1687-1722), he was knighted in 1697, and 
died at Boxted, Essex. He wrote six epics in sixty books 
(all on the loftiest themes), besides versions of various 
books of the Bible, and theological, medical, and miscellane¬ 
ous treatises. 

BLANE, SIR GILBERT (1749-1834). Physician; born at Blane- 
field, Ayrshire, studied at Edinburgh University, and in 1779 
sailed with Rodney to the West Indies. In 1783 he was 
elected physician to St. Thomas’s Hospital, London. As 
head of the Navy Medical Board, he was instrumental in 
introducing the use of lemon-juice on board ship. In 1812 
he was made a baronet. 

BLOMSTRAND, CHRISTIAN WILHELM (1826-97). A Swed¬ 
ish chemist, born at Wexio. He studied at the University 
of Lund, and from 1862 to 1895 was professor of chemistry 
and mineralogy there. In 1861 he undertook a scientific 
expedition to Spitzbergen, and in the same year was elected 
a member of the Stockholm Academy of Sciences. He dis¬ 
covered manganosite, vallerite, and other minerals, wrote 
several valuable text-books on organic chemistry, and also 
published Die Chemie der Jetstzeit vom Stcmdpunkte der 


40 


A BIOGRAPH ICAIy CYCLOPEDIA 


elektrotechnischen Auffassung aus Berzelius’s Lehre ent- 
wickelt (1869), and other treatises. 

BCCK, KARL ERNST (1809-74). German anatomist. At 
the outbreak of the Polish revolution he went to Warsaw, 
where he acted as hospital physician, first in the Polish ser¬ 
vice and later in the Russian. On his return home he was 
elected extraordinary professor in the University of Leipsic. 
His title to fame rests chiefly on his Handbook of Human 
Anatomy. 

BOERHAAVE, HERMANN (1668-1738). The most cele¬ 
brated physician of the 18th century, was born at Voorhout, 
near Leyden; in 1682 he went to Leyden, where he studied 
theology and oriental languages, and took his degree in 
philosophy in 1689; but in 1690 he began the study of medi¬ 
cine, and in 1701 was appointed lecturer on the theory of 
medicine, in 1709 professor of medicine and botany. The 
two works on which his great fame chiefly rests, Institu- 
tiones Medicce (1708) and Aphorismi de Cognoscendis et 
Curandis Morbis (1709), were translated into various 
European languages, and even into Arabic. Though so in¬ 
dustrious in his own profession, he also undertook in 1718 
the professorship of chemistry, and his Blementa Chemice 
(1724) occupies a high place in the history of chemistry. 
Meanwhile patients came from all parts of Europe to consult 
him, so that he made a fortune of two million florins 
($800,000). See Lives by Burton (2 vols. 1743) and John¬ 
son (1834). 

BOIVIN, MARIE ANNE VICTOIRE (1773-1841). French mid¬ 
wife, upon whom a diploma of M.D., was conferred by 
the University of Marburg, noted for her writings on ob¬ 
stetrics; born in Montreuil, April 9; died May 16. She was 
educated in the nunnery, where by her talents she attracted 
the attention of the sister of Louis XVI., Madame Elisabeth. 
When the nunnery where she was placed was destroyed 
in the course of the revolution, she spent three years in the 
study of anatomy and midwifery. In 1797 she married an 
employee at Versailles, of the name of Boivin, but on being 
left after a short time a widow with a child and without a 
fortune, undertook the office of midwife at the Hospital of 
the Maternity, and, in 1801, was appointed chief superintend¬ 
ent of the institution, to which, in accordance with her sug¬ 
gestion, a special school in accouchement was added by 
Chaptal. Her Memorial de l’ art des accouchements, pub¬ 
lished in 1824, passed through several editions. The empress 
of Russia invited her to St. Petersburg, but she declined. 

BOORDE, or Borde. Andrew (i490?-i549). Born near Cuck- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


41 


field in Sussex; was brought up a Carthusian, after 
1527 studied medicine at Orleans, Toulouse, Montpellier, 
and Wittenberg, visited Rome and Compostella, and for 
Cromwell carried through a confidential mission in France 
and Spain. He practised medicine in Glasgow (1536), 
traveled in Antwerp, Cologne, Venice, and Rhodes to Jeru¬ 
salem, and in April died in Fleet prison in London. Boorde’s 
chief works are his Dyetary and the Fyrst Boke of the 
Introduction of Knowledge, edited by Dr. Furnivall in 1870. 
His Itinerary of Europe has perished, but the Handbook of 
Europe survives, and the Itinerary of England or Peregrina¬ 
tion of Doctor Boorde was printed by Hearne in 1735. 
Many books have been fathered on the fantastic old repro¬ 
bate. The earliest known specimens of the Gypsy language 
occurs in the Introduction. 

BOOTH, JAMES CURTIS (1810-88). An American chemist. 
He was born in Philadelphia, and graduated at the Univer¬ 
sity of Pennsylvania in 1829. He then remained one year at 
the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and in 1832 went 
abroad. There were at this time no regular organized stu¬ 
dent laboratories at German universities, and Booth com¬ 
bined his studies of chemistry at Wohler’s private laboratory 
at Cassel. After further studies at Berlin, Vienna, and in 
England, he returned to Philadelphia, where, in 1836, he 
established a laboratory for instruction in analytical chemis¬ 
try, the first of its kind in the United States. Many distin¬ 
guished chemists, such as Campbell Morfit, R. E. Rogers, 
J. F. Frazer, Thomas H. Garrett, and R. T. McCulloh, were 
educated at this institution. Mr. Booth was professor of 
applied chemistry at the Franklin Institute from 1836 to 
1845, and was superintendent of smelting and refining, in 
the United States Mint at Philadelphia from 1849 to 1888, 
in which capacity he experimented with the nickel ores of 
Pennsylvania, introducing the fusion of that metal with 
other alloys in the coinage of cents during the year 1857. 
Among his principal works may be mentioned: Annual 
Reports of the Delaware Geological Survey (1839) ; En¬ 
cyclopaedia of Chemistry (in collaboration with Campbell 
Morfit, 1850) ; On Recent Improvements in the Chemical 
Arts (jointly with Campbell Morfit, 1852). 

BORELLI, GIOVANNI ALFONSO (1609-79). An Italian phy¬ 
sician and mathematician, the founder of the iatro-physical 
school. He was educated in Florence, and was a professor 
of mathematics in Pisa and afterward in Messina. Having 
taken part in a revolt, he was obliged to leave Messina, and 
spent the remainder of his life in Rome. He carefully ob- 


42 


A BIOGRAPH ICAL, CYCLOPEDIA 


served the motions of the satellites of Jupiter, then little 
known, and seems to have been the first to discover the para¬ 
bolic paths of the comets. In his epoch-making work, De 
Motu Animalium (Rome, 1680-81), we find the first attempt 
to apply the principles of mechanics to the movements of 
animals. Regarding the bones as levers, in which the power 
acts between the weight and the fulcrum, he endeavors to 
calculate the power of muscles from a consideration of their 
fibrous structure, and the manner in which they are united 
to the tendons. 

BOUSSINGAULT, JEAN BAPTISTE JOSEPH DIEUDONNE 

(1802-87). French chemist; born and died in Paris. He 
was sent to South America in the employment of a mining 
company, and made extensive travels and valuable scientific 
researches there. Returning to France he became professor 
of chemistry at Lyons in 1839, was made a member of the 
Institute, and then made Paris his chief residence. His 
works deal chiefly with agricultural chemistry, and include 
Bconomie Rurale (translated into English and German) ; 
Memoires de Chimie agricole et de Physiologic; Agronomic, 
Chimie agricole, et Physiologie, etc. 

BOWDITCH, HENRY INGERSOLL( 1808-92). American phy¬ 
sician; born at Salem, Mass. He received his degree at 
Harvard in 1832; was professor of clinical medicine at Har¬ 
vard in 1859-67; chairman of the State Board of Health in 
1869-79; and president of the American Medical Associa¬ 
tion in 1877. He announced the law of soil moisture as a 
cause of consumption in New England; introduced several 
new features in surgical treatment, and was author of many 
general and special works in medical science. He was the 
first to practise chest-puncture in cases of pleurisy. 

BOWMAN, SIR WILLIAM (1816). Oculist. Was born in 
Nantwich, July 20, and died in London, March 29. With 
Todd he published Physiological Anatomy (5 vols. 1845-56), 
and gained a high reputation by his Lectures oh Operations 
on the Bye (1849). His Collected Papers appeared in 1892. 

BOYER, ALEXIS, BARON DE (1757-1833). A great French 
surgeon; was born a tailor’s son at Uzerches in Limousin, 
and in 1805 was appointed first surgeon to Napoleon, whom 
he accompanied on his campaigns. 

BOYLSTON, ZABDIEL (1680-1766). American physician; 
born in Brookline, Mass., died in Boston. He studied 
medicine, settled in Boston, and acquired a prosperous prac¬ 
tise. In spite of the almost unanimous opposition of the 
medical profession and part of the public, he introduced the 
practise of inoculation for smallpox, having become a firm 


01? MEDICAL HISTORY 


43 


believer in it. Out of 286 persons inoculated in 1721-72 only- 
six died, and he had the satisfaction of seeing the practise 
become general in New England long before it became so in 
England. He visited England in 1725 and was elected a 
Fellow of the Royal Society. Besides some papers pub¬ 
lished in the Transactions of that Society he wrote: His¬ 
torical Account of the Smallpox Inoculated in New Eng¬ 
land, Upon All Sorts of Persons, Whites, Blacks, and of all 
Ages and Constitutions (2d ed., 8vo., Eondon, 1726; re¬ 
printed, Boston, 1730). 

BRAID, JAMES (1795-1850). Born in Fife, studied med¬ 
icine at Edinburgh, and settled as a surgeon in Manchester, 
/here he died, March 25. He is noted for his researches on 
Animal Magnetism, which he called Hypnotism. 

BRANDE, WILLIAM THOMAS (1788-1866). Chemist, bom 
in London, February 11; died, February 11; having become 
an F.R.S. in 1809; professor of Chemistry to the 
Apothecaries’ Company in 1812; Davy’s successor at 
the Royal Institution in 1813, and head of the coinage 
department of the Mint, in 1854. He published a Manual 
of Chemistry (1819; 6th ed. 1848), a Dictionary of Materia 
Medica (1839), and a Dictionary of Science and Art (1842; 
new ed. 1875). 

BRAUNE, CHRISTIAN WILHELM (1835-92). A German an¬ 
atomist; born in Leipzig, and studied at the universities 
of Gottingen and Wurzburg. In 1872 he became professor 
of typographical anatomy at the University of Leipzig. 
In his scientific investigations, Braune devoted himself par¬ 
ticularly to the mechanical physiological side of anatomy, 
particularly as regards the movements of the joints and the 
equilibrium of the body in their bearing upon the equipment 
of the infantry. He also introduced dissection of frozen 
corpses into the technique of anatomy. Among his numer¬ 
ous works are the following: Typographisch-anatomischer 
Atlas, nach Durchschnitten an gefrorenen Kadavern (1872) ; 
Die Lage des Uterus und Fdtus am gefrorenen Kadavern 
(1873) ; Das Venensystem des menschlichen Korpers (1884- 
88). In collaboration with His, he edited, after 1876, the 
Archiv fur Anatomie und Entwickelungsgeschichte. He 
was also instrumental in securing the publication of the 
musical works of Frederick the Great. 

BRIERRE DE BOISMONT, ALEXANDRE JAQUES 

FRANCOIS (1798-1881). A French physician and author¬ 
ity on insanity; bom in Rouen. He took his degree in med¬ 
icine in 1825, in which year he published his first work, 
Elements de botanique. In 1831 he spent some months in 


44 


A BIOGRAPH ICAIy CYCLOPEDIA 


Poland, studying the cholera, and upon his return published 
the results of his investigations in a treatise, which ob¬ 
tained for him a gold medal from the Institute. He then 
turned his attention to mental diseases, founding and main¬ 
taining an asylum for the treatment of the insane. His 
principal works are: La pellagre et la folie pellagreuse 
(1834); La menstruation (1842) ; La delire aigu (1844) ; 
Les hallucinations (1845) ; and Le suicide (1854). 

BRIGHAM, AMARIAH (1798-1849). An American physician; 
born in New Marlboro, Mass., December 26. At an early 
age he was left upon his own resources, and finding his way 
to Albany from Schoharie, he secured employment in a book¬ 
store, where he remained three years. He returned to his na¬ 
tive place and studied medicine, and began its practise in 
1821, becoming widely known as a surgeon at Greenfield. In 
1828 he visited Britian and the continent of Europe. Return¬ 
ing to America, he located in Hartford. Here revivals being 
in frequent progress, he raised his voice against them, on ac¬ 
count of their injurious hygienic tendencies, and published 
his views on the subject in Influence of Mental Cultivation 
on the Health (1832), and Influence of Religion upon the 
Health and Physical Welfare of Mankind (1835). In 1840, 
in spite of much opposition, he was appointed superintend¬ 
ent of the Hartford Retreat for the Insane, and two years 
later accepted the offer of the superintendency in the New 
York State Asylum for the Insane at Utica. In this posi¬ 
tion he was also successful. In 1844 he founded the Journal 
of Insanity, a quarterly publication. Among his other works 
are Treatise on Epidemic Cholera (1832) ; Disease of the 
Brain (1836); and Asylum Souvenir (1849). He died in 
Utica, New York, September 8. 

BRIGHT, RICHARD (1789-1858). Physician; was born at 
Bristol; died December 16. He studied at Edinburgh, Lon¬ 
don, Berlin, and Vienna, and from 1820 was connected with 
Guy’s Hospital. He made many important medical observa¬ 
tions (“Bright’s disease” of the kidneys is named after him) 
and wrote numerous dissertations. His Travels through 
Lower Hungary (1818) contains a valuable account of the 
Gypsies. 

BRINTON, DANIEL GARRISON (1837-99). American sur¬ 
geon, archaeologist and ethnologist; born in Thornbury, Pa., 
died in Atlantic City, N. J. During the Civil War he was a 
surgeon in the Union Army, and from 1867 to 1887 was 
editor of the Medical and Surgical Reporter. In 1884 he 
was appointed professor of ethnology at the Academy of 
Natural Sciences in Philadelphia; and in 1886, professor of 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


45 


American linguistics and archaeology in the University of 
Pennsylvania. Among his many works are notes on the 
Floridian Penninsula (1859) ; The Myths of the New World 
(1868); American Hero Myths (1882); Aboriginal Amer¬ 
ican Anthology; Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics (1896) ; 
Religions of Primitive Peoples (1897) ; etc. He edited The 
Library of Aboriginal American Literature in eight volumes 
(1882-85), and was a high authority on all American 
archaeological topics. 

BROCA, PAUL (1824-80). A French surgeon and anthro¬ 
pologist, born at Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, Gironde; died July 
9. After pursuing his medical studies with distinction, he was 
chosen professor of surgical pathology in the Faculty of 
Medicine in Paris, and surgeon successively of the four hos¬ 
pitals of Bicetre, La Salpetriere, Saint-Antoine and La Pitie. 
Celebrated as a surgeon, Broca was also regarded as one of 
the most learned masters of the existing school of anthropol¬ 
ogy. He founded the Paris Anthropological Society, of 
which he was secretary till his death, and he was a member 
of all the leading medical, biological and anatomical societies 
of Paris and the Continent. In 1861 he enunciated the theory 
that in aphasia the part of the brain necessarily diseased is 
the posterior third of the inferior left frontal convolution, 
which has since received the name of Broca’s convolution. 
Elected a member of the Academy of Medicine in 1866, he 
was decorated with the Legion of Honor in 1868. Broca 
was a voluminous writer, and among his more important 
works may be mentioned the following: Des Anevrismes et 
de Leur Traitement (1856) ; Sur I’Anesthesie Chirurgicale 
Hypnotique (1859) ; Ltudes sur les Animaux Ressuscitants 
(i860) ; Instructions Generates pour les Recherches Anthro- 
pologiques (1865); Traite des Tumeurs (1865); Caractdre 
Physique de I’Homme Prehistorique (1869). He also col¬ 
laborated in the production of several important medical 
and physiological works. In 1878 he presided over an inter¬ 
national congress on anthropology held in Paris. 

BRODIE, SIR BENJAMIN COLLINS (1783-1862). A distin¬ 
guished English surgeon; born at Winterslow, near Salis¬ 
bury. He studied at the Hunterian School, in Great 
Windmill Street, where Abernethy was then a lecturer, and 
at St. George’s Hospital. In 1809 he became lecturer at the 
school and assistant surgeon at St. George’s. In the follow¬ 
ing year he was chosen croonian lecturer at the Royal 
Society, and for some elaborate papers which he laid before 
the society was chosen fellow, and soon after received the 
Copley medal. In 1819 he became professor of anatomy and 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


46 

surgery to the Royal College of Surgeons, and three years 
later full surgeon to St. George’s Hospital. He continued 
his lectures till 1830. The appointment of sergeant-surgeon 
to the king was given him in 1834, and a similar appoint¬ 
ment was continued him by commission of Queen Victoria. 
In 1844 he became president of the college and in 1858 presi¬ 
dent of the Royal Society, being the first surgeon who had 
that dignity conferred on him. His practise grew steadily, 
and his reputation with it, and amidst all his public and 
private duties he found leisure for wider studies than those 
merely professional, and for the production of several im¬ 
portant works. These are— Pathological and Surgical Ob¬ 
servations on Diseases of the Joints; Lectures on Pathology 
and Surgery; and Psychological Inquiries. Died at Betch- 
worth, Surrey. Since his death his Autobiography has been 
published. 

BROUSSAIS, FRANCOIS JOSEPH VICTOR (1772-1838). A 
celebrated French physician, was born at St. Malo. From 
his father, who was also a physician, he received his first 
instructions in medicine, and he studied for some years at 
the college of Dinan. Of his works, which are very numer¬ 
ous, the most important are the Uxamen and De VIrritation 
et de la Folie. 

BROWN, JOHN (1736-88). Founder of the Brunonian sys¬ 
tem of medicine; born of poor parents, in Bunkle parish, 
Berwickshire; taught at Duns and in Edinburgh, and after 
studying medicine became assistant to Professor Cullen. 
Conceiving himself slighted by Cullen, he commenced giving 
lectures himself upon a new system of medicine, according 
to which all diseases are divided into the sthenic, or those 
depending on an excess of excitement, and the asthenic; the 
former to be removed by debilitating medicines, as opium, 
and the latter by stimulants, such as wine and brandy. His 
system found strong support in Germany and Italy. In 1779 
he took his M.D. at St. Andrews, and in 1780 published Ele- 
menta Medicince (English version, with Life by Dr. Bed- 
does; 2d ed. 1795). Overwhelmed with debt, in 1786 he re¬ 
moved to London, where he died, October 17. His works 
were edited, with a memoir, by his son (3 vols. 1804). 
BROWN, JOHN (1810-82). Essayist; born at Biggar, Septem¬ 
ber 22; attended the High School at Edinburgh, and studied 
arts and medicine at the university there, becoming M.D. in 
1833. His practise was never large, his life was quiet and 
uneventful (though some years were clouded by fits of de¬ 
pression). He died May 11. Almost all Dr. John 
Brown’s writings are comprised within three volumes 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


47 


—two Horce Subsecivce (“Leisure Hours,” 1858-61) and 
John Leech and other Papers (1882). Humor is the 
chief feature of his genius—humor with its twin-sister 
pathos; we find them both at their highest perfection in his 
sketches of “Rab” and “Marjorie”—the uncouth mastiff and 
the dear dead child. Writing of nothing that he did not 
know, he wrote, too, of nothing that he did not love or 
greatly care for. Hence both the lucidity and the tender¬ 
ness of his essays, which rank with Lamb’s, and with 
Lamb’s alone in the language. See Dr. John Broivn and his 
Sisters (5th ed. 1896) and Dr. Peddie’s Recollections of 
him (1893). 

BROWN, THOMAS (1778-1820). A Scottish metaphysician, 
born at Kirkmabreck manse, Kirkcudbrightshire, July 9, en¬ 
tered Edinburgh University in 1792, and abandoning law for 
medicine, became in 1806 the partner of Dr. Gregory in his 
large practise. His strong bent, however, was for literature 
and philosophical speculation. At twenty he had published 
a criticism of Darwin’s Zoonomia; he contributed at the 
outset to the Edinburgh Review; and in 1804 appeared his 
essay on Cause and Effect. In 1810 he became colleague and 
successor to Dugald Stewart, professor of Moral Philos¬ 
ophy; and he died April 2. Brown’s chief contribution to 
psychology is the establishment of a sixth or muscular 
sense; his Lectures (with a memoir by Welsh) reached a 
20th edition in i860. 

BROWNE, SIR THOMAS (1605-82). Author of the Religio 
Medici, was born in London, October 19, and educated at 
Winchester College and at Broadgate Hall (now Pembroke 
College), Oxford. He next studied medicine, traveled in 
Ireland, France, and Italy, continued his medical studies 
at Montpelliei* and Padua, graduated as Doctor of Medicine 
at Leyden and at Oxford, and settled in 1637 at Norwich. 
He lived calmly throughout the troubles of the Civil War, 
maintained an active correspondence with antiquaries and 
scientists, and was knighted by Charles II. on his visit 
to Norwich in 1671. He died October 19, and was 
buried in the church of St. Peter’s Mancroft, whence 
in 1840 his skull was “knav’d out of its grave” and 
placed in the hospital-museum. His greatest work is 
his earliest, the Religio Medici, written about 1635—a 
kind of confession of faith, revealing a deep insight into 
the dim mysteries of the spiritual life. The surreptitious 
publication of two editions in 1642 obliged him to issue an 
authorised edition in 1643. It was translated into Latin, and 
had the honor of insertion in the Index Expur gat orius. 


48 A BIOGRAPH ICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

Pseudodoxia Epidemica, or Enquiries into Vulgar and Com¬ 
mon Errors (1646), a strange and discursive amalgam of 
humor, acuteness, learning, and credulity, is by far the most 
elaborate of his works. Hydriotaphia; Urn Burial (1658), 
mainly a discussion of burial-customs, shows all the author’s 
vast and curious learning set in language of rich and 
gorgeous eloquence. The Garden of Cyrus (1658), the most 
fantastic of Browne’s writings, aims to show that the num¬ 
ber five pervaded not only all the horticulture of antiquity, 
but that it recurs throughout all plant-life, as well as the 
“figurations” of animals. After his death appeared Miscel¬ 
lany Tracts (1683), Letter to a Friend (1690), and Christian 
Morals (1716), an incomplete work, evidently intended to be 
a continuation of Religio Medici . Browne’s works are un¬ 
systematic and unequal; his thought is strikingly original, 
often expressed in quaint humor or searching pathos. His 
favorite theme is ever the mystery of death. His style is 
too peculiar, idiomatic, and difficult to be popular, and his 
studied brevity often falls into obscurity. Charles Lamb 
boasted that he was the first “among the modems” to dis¬ 
cover Browne’s excellencies; De Quincey ranks him with 
Jeremy Taylor as the richest and most dazzling of rhetor¬ 
icians; and Lowell calls him “our most imaginative mind 
since Shakespeare.” There is a monumental edition of the 
works by Simon Wilkin (4 vols. Pickering, 1835-36) ; Dr. 
Greenhill’s scholarly edition of the Religio Medici appeared 
in 1881. 

BRGWN-SEQUARD, EDOUARD (1817-94). Physiologist; 
born at Port Louis, Mauritius, April 8, the son of a Philadel¬ 
phia sea-captain and a lady named Sequard. He studied at 
Paris, graduated M.D. in 1846, devoted himself to physiolog¬ 
ical research, and received many prizes for his experiments 
on blood, muscular irritability, animal heat, the spinal cord, 
and the nervous system. In 1864 he became professor of 
physiology at Harvard, in 1869 returned to Paris as pro¬ 
fessor of pathology in the School of Medicine, in 1873 be¬ 
came a medical practitioner in New York, and in 1878 suc¬ 
ceeded Claude Bernard as professor of Experimental Med¬ 
icine at the College de France. He repeatedly lectured in 
England also. He published lectures on Physiology and 
Pathology of the Nervous System (Phila., i860) ; Paralysis 
of the Lower Extremities (i860); Nervous Affections 
(1873) ; Dual Character of the Brain (1877), etc. He died 
September 1. See Eloy, La Methode de Brown-Sequard 
(Paris, 1893). 

BRUCKE, ERNST WILHELM von (1819-92). A German 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


49 


physician and physiologist, bom in Berlin. He studied med¬ 
icine at the universities of Berlin and Heidelberg, in 1846 
became an instructor in anatomy at the Academy of Fine 
Arts, Berlin, and in 1848 professor of physiology at the 
University of Konigsberg. In 1849 he was called to the 
chair of physiology and microscopic anatomy at the Uni¬ 
versity of Vienna. Among his more important works are 
an Anatomische Beschreibung des Augapfels (1847); 
Grundziige der Physiologie und Systematik der Sprachlaute 
(1856) ; and a Neue Methode der phonetischen Transkrip- 
tion (1863). 

BRUNFELS, OTTO (1488-1534). A German physician and 
botanist, born in Mentz. He became a member of the Car¬ 
thusian community near there, but subsequently turned Pro¬ 
testant, and was pastor in Steinheim and Neuenburg. 
Ultimately he abandoned his pastoral office, studied med¬ 
icine, and died a physician in Bern. In his Historia Plan- 
tarum (1530-36), he was the first to describe the native 
plants of Germany. The text was accompanied by illustra¬ 
tions in outline. 

BRUNS, VICTOR von (1812-83). AGerman surgeon, born 
at Helmstedt. He studied in Brunswick, Tubingen, Halle, 
and Berlin, and after practising in Brunswick visited Vienna 
and Paris, to perfect himself in the science of surgery. In 
1843 he accepted the position of professor of surgery at 
Tubingen. In 1855 he was ennobled. He wrote numerous 
scientific treatises, and was an authority on diseases of the 
larynx, winning the medical prize of 20,000 marks offered by 
the Academy of Turin with his work on the surgical treat¬ 
ment of the larynx. Among his publications are: Die 
Durchschneidung der Gesichtsnerven beim Gesichtsschmerz 
(Tubingen, 1859) ; Die Laryngoskopie und laryngoskopische 
Chirurgie (Tubingen, 1865) ; Die Amputation der Gliedmas- 
sen durch Zirkelschnitt mit vorderm Hautlappen (Tubingen, 
1879). 

BUCHAN, WILLIAM (1729-1805). Physician; born at An- 
crum, Roxburghshire, studied divinity and medicine in 
Edinburgh, settled in Sheffield, but removed to Edinburgh 
about 1766, and in 1778 to London. Of his Domestic Med¬ 
icine (1769) 80,000 copies were sold during Buchan's life¬ 
time. He also wrote Cold Bathing (1786) ; Diet (i 797 ) \ 
and Offices and Duties of a Mother (1800). 

BUCHEZ, PHILIPPE BENJAMIN JOSEPH (1796-1865). 
French physician and publicist, edited various journals, pub¬ 
lished works on social science, history, and philosophy, 
striving ingeniously but vainly to weld Communism and 
4 


50 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

Catholicism, and, in concert with M. Roux Lavergne, began 
the Histoire Parlementaire de la Revolution Frangaise (40 
vols. 1833-38). In 1848 Buchez was president of the Na¬ 
tion Assembly. 

BUDGE, JULIUS (1811-88). A German physiologist. He 
was born at Wetzlar, and studied at the universities of Mar¬ 
burg, Wurzburg, and Berlin. He afterwards successively 
became extraordinary professor at Bonn (1847-56) and pro¬ 
fessor of anatomy and physiology at Greifswald, where he 
was also director of the anatomical institute. He pointed 
out the relation between parts of the brain on the one hand 
and the genito-urinary organs on the other, and made the 
important discovery that the systemic nerve has its origin 
in the spinal cord, and not in the peripheral ganglia. He 
also discovered the capillaries of the gall. Among his 
principal works are the following: Die Lehre vom Erbre- 
chen (1840) ; Allgemeine Pathologie (1843) ; Lehrbuch der 
speziellen Physiologie des Menschen (8th ed., 1862); 
Kompendium der Physiologie (3d ed., 1875). 

BUHL, LUDWIG von (1816-80). A German physiologist; 
born at Munich. He did much work in physical diagnosis, 
pathological anatomy, and microscopy. In 1850 he became 
professor of general pathology and pathological anatomy at 
the University of Munich, and in 1875 was appointed di¬ 
rector in the pathological institute in that city. His most 
important publication is the treatise on pulmonary diseases 
entitled Lungenentzundung, Tuberkulose und Schwindsucht 
(1872; 2d ed., 1874). 

BURNETT, SIR WILLIAM (1779-1861). Physician-general 
of the British navy; born at Montrose, and died at 
Chichester. 

BURROWS, SIR GEORGE (1801-87). Physician; graduated 
at Cambridge as tenth wrangler in 1825, and in 1874 was 
created a baronet. 

BUSCH, WILLIAM (1826-81). A German surgeon, born in 
Marburg. He studied at the University of Berlin; was in 
1855 appointed professor of surgery at Bonn, and afterwards 
acted as consulting surgeon-general in the army in 1866 and 
during the Franco-Prussian War. His published works in¬ 
clude the following: Chirurgische Beobachtungen, gesam - 
melt in der Klinik zu Berlin (1854) > Lehrbuch der Chirur- 
gie (2 vols., 1857-69). 

BUTLEROFF, ALEXANDER MIKHAILOVICH (1825-86). 
Russian chemist. Born at Tchistopol (Government of 
Kazan) and was educated at the University of Kazan, 



01? MEDICAIv HISTORY 


51 


where, in 1858, he was appointed professor of chemistry. 
He also held the position of rector at that institution. In 
1868 he was called in the same capacity to the University of 
Saint Petersburg. Besides publishing a valuable work on 
the general principles of organic chemistry, Butleroff car¬ 
ried out a number of interesting original investigations. His 
best known contribution to science was the discovery of the 
so-called tertiary alcohols, and of a method by which 
the substances of this class may be readily prepared 
(Butleroff’s Reaction). His scientific papers may be 
found in the publications of the Academy of Saint Peters¬ 
burg and Paris, and in Liebig’s Annalen. Butleroff was a 
strong believer in spiritualism, and even published a work 
in French on this subject, entitled Etudes psychiques. 

BUTTS, SIR WILLIAM (?-1545). An English physician; 
born in Norfolk, and educated at Cambridge; being admitted 
to the degree of M.D. in 1518. He subsequently became 
physician in ordinary to Henry VIII. He appears as one 
of the characters in Shakespeare’s Henry VIII. (v. 2). 

BYFORD, WILLIAM HEATH (1817-90). Physician; born in 
Ohio, March 27; died in Chicago, May 21; graduated at Ohio 
Medical College in 1844. In 1857 he became professor of 
obstetrics in Rush Medical College, and in 1880 professor of 
gynaecology there. In 1862 he was chosen president of the 
Woman’s Medical College of Chicago. His volume on 
Theory and Practise of Obstetrics (1870) obtained a wide 
circulation among physicians. 

C 

CABANIS, PIERRE JEAN GEORGES (1757-1808). Physician 
and philosophical writer; born at Cosnac, Charente-Infer- 
ieure; attached himself to the popular side in the Revolu¬ 
tion. He furnished Mirabeau with material for his speeches 
on public education; and Mirabeau died in his arms. Dur¬ 
ing the Reign of Terror he lived in retirement, and was 
afterwards a teacher in the medical school at Paris, a mem¬ 
ber of the Council of Five Hundred, then of the Senate. 
He died near Meulan. His chief work is his once-famous 
Rapports du Physique et du Moral de /’ Homme (1802). 

CABELL, JAMES LAWRENCE (1813-89). American sani¬ 
tarian; born in Nelson County, Va.; died in Overton, Va. 
He was graduated at the University of Virginia in 1833, 
where he later filled the chair of anatomy. During the Civil 
War he had charge of military hospitals for the Confederate 
government. He devised measures to check the yellow fever 
epidemic at Memphis, and was president of the National 
Board of Health from 1879 till his death. 


52 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


CAIUS, JOHN (1510-73). Physician and scholar; born at 
Norwich, October 6. Caius (pronounced Keys ) being prob- 
bly a Latinised form of Kaye or Key. He entered Gonville 
Hall, Cambridge, in 1529, and in 1533 was elected a fellow 
thereof, having just before been appointed principal of Fis- 
wick’s Hostel. In 1539 he went abroad, in 154 1 was created 
an M.D. of Padua; returning to England in 1544, he lectured 
on anatomy in London, then practised at Shrewsbury and 
Norwich. In 1547 he was admitted a fellow of the College 
of Physicians, of which he was subsequently nine times 
elected president. He also became physician to Edward VI., 
Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth. Gonville Hall, founded 
in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, rector of Thelnetham, Suffolk 
(d. 1351), was by Caius in 1557 elevated into a college, which 
took the name of Gonville and Caius College, and of which 
in 1559 he became master. A loyal Catholic, he had great 
trouble with his Protestant fellows, who burned his mass 
vestments, and whom in return he put in the stocks. He 
died July 29. He was author of A Boke or Counseill 
against the Sweatyng Sicknesse (1552), and of ten other 
published works on a variety of subjects, critical, antiquar¬ 
ian, and scientific. 

CALDANI, LEOPOLD MARCO ANTONIO (1725-1813). A dis¬ 
tinguished Italian anatomist and physician, was born at 
Bologna. After holding various minor appointments, he 
was chosen assistant to the celebrated anatomist Morgagni 
at Padua, but disgusted with the envy which his distin¬ 
guished position drew upon him, he removed to Venice. In 
1772 he took possession of the chair of anatomy, vacant by 
the death of Morgagni, and endeavored, though without suc¬ 
cess, to found an anatomical museum. 

CALVERT, FREDERICK GRACE (1819-73). Chemist; born 
in London, resided in France (1836-46), and then settled as 
a consulting chemist in Manchester. He was largely instru¬ 
mental in introducing carbolic acid as a disinfectant. 

CAMPER, PETER (1722-89). A celebrated anatomist and 
naturalist; born at Leyden, May 11. He was educated at 
the University of Leyden, and in 1746 graduated in philos¬ 
ophy and medicine. After the death of his father in 1748 
he spent more than a year in England, studying under the 
most famous medical teachers in London. He then visited 
Paris, Lyons, and Geneva, and returned to Franeker, where 
he had been appointed to the professorship of philosophy, 
medicine, and surgery. He visited England a second time 
in 1752, and in 1755 he was called to the chair of anatomy 
and, surgery at the Athenaeum in Amsterdam. He resigned 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


53 


this post after six years, and retired to his country house 
near Franeker, in order to carry on his studies uninter¬ 
ruptedly. In 1763, however, he accepted the professorship 
of medicine, surgery, and anatomy at Groningen, and con¬ 
tinued in the chair for ten years. He then returned to 
Franeker, and after the death of his wife in 1776, spent 
some time in traveling. He made the acquaintance of Dide¬ 
rot and Marmontel at Paris, and was received with great 
respect by Frederick the Great at Potsdam. In 1762 he had 
been returned as one of the deputies in the assembly of the 
province of Friesland, and the latter years of his life were 
much occupied with political affairs. In 1783 he was nomi¬ 
nated to a seat in the council of state, and took up his resi¬ 
dence at the Hague. His death (April 7) was caused by a 
violent pleurisy, the effects of which were accelerated by 
political excitement. 

CAMPION, THOMAS (about 1575-1620). Physician, poet, and 
composer, was born at Witham in Essex, studied in Cam¬ 
bridge and abroad, and died in London. See Bullen’s edi¬ 
tion of his works (1889) and E. Rhys’s selection (1896). 

CANTANI, ARNOLDO (1837-93). Italian physician; born in 
Hainsbach, Bohemia, February 15; died, Naples, May 7. 
He was educated at Prague, and was physician in the gen¬ 
eral hospital there. In 1864 he became professor of phar¬ 
macology and toxicology at Pavia; in 1867 he was director 
of the clinical institute at Milan, and in 1868 of that at 
Naples. In 1889 he became a senator of Italy. He investi¬ 
gated chiefly malaria, typhus, and tuberculosis; and was in¬ 
fluential in introducing the methods of German medicine 
into Italy. He wrote Manuale di Materia Medica e Tera- 
peutica (1865) ; Manuale di Farmacologia Clinica (1885-90). 

CARLETON, WALTER (1619-1707). Physician, philosopher, 
antiquary, and author, was born at Shepton-Mallet, and died 
at Nantwich. 

CARLYLE, JOHN AITKEN (1801-79). An English physi¬ 
cian, brother of Thomas Carlyle. He studied medicine at 
Edinburgh University; was traveling physician to the 
Countess of Clare, and afterwards to the Duke of Buccleuch. 
After abandoning his practise (1848), he lived for a time at 
Chelsea near his brother. He made an excellent prose 
translation of Dante’s Inferno (1849; rev. 1867). 

CARNOCHAN, JOHN MURRAY (1817-87). An eminent sur¬ 
geon; born in Savanah, Georgia, July 4; died in New York 
City, October 28. He studied medicine at the University 
of Edinburgh and graduated there, and afterward studied 
surgery in Paris, London and other Continental cities. In 


54 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


1847 he began the practise of surgery in New York City, 
where he at once attained a very high reputation on account 
of his success in operations never before attempted. In 1852 
he severed and tied the femoral artery, effecting a cure in 
an exaggerated case of nutrition (elephantiasis arabrum). 
The same year he removed a lower jaw, entire, with both 
condyles. In 1854 he removed the entire ulna, and also the 
entire radius. In 1856 he cut down and removed the entire 
trunk of the second branch of the fifth pair of cranial nerves, 
the nerve being cut from the infra-orbital foramen to the 
foramen rotundum, at the base of the skull, involving an 
operation through the malar bone. The removal of this 
nerve had been decided upon to secure relief in a chronic 
case of neuralgia. It was entirely successful, and made the 
bold and accurate operator famous throughout the world. 
In 1851 he was appointed professor of surgery in the New 
York Medical College. He occupied other professional ap¬ 
pointments, including that of surgeon-in-chief to the State 
Immigrant Hospital. He published Congenital Dislocations 
(1850); Contributions to Operative Surgery and Surgical 
Pathology (i860, 1877-86). 

CARSON, JOSEPH (1808-76). An American pharmacist and 
medical botanist; born in Philadelphia. He graduated at 
the University of Pennsylvania in 1826, and at the Medical 
School of the University in 1830, and in 1836-50 was pro¬ 
fessor of materia medica in the Philadelphia College of 
Pharmacy. He held a similar chair in the University of 
Pennsylvania from 1850-76. In 1870 he was president of 
the national convention for the revision of the Pharma¬ 
copoeia, and for a number of years he was associate editor 
of the American Journal of Pharmacy. He edited the Ele¬ 
ments of Materia Medica of Jonathan Pereira (1843; 2d ed., 
2 vols., 1845), and the Materia Medica and Therapeutics of 
J. Forbes Royle (1847), and published the Illustrations of 
Medical Botany (1847). 

CASPER, JOHANN LUDWIG (1796-1864). A German physi¬ 
cian. He was born in Berlin, and studied at the univer¬ 
sity of that city and in Halle and Gottingen. In 1820 he 
became lecturer in the University of Berlin, and in 1839 full 
professor. From 1841 he was in charge of the medico-legal 
institute connected with the university. He exerted great 
influence, and his advice was constantly sought by the Gov¬ 
ernment. His Beitrage zur medizinischen Statistik und 
Staatsarzneikunde (1825-37) marks the first serious attempt 
at the establishment of a science of medical statistics. This 
work was followed by the Denunirdigkeiten zur medizinischen 


OB' MEDICAL, HISTORY 


55 


Statistik und Staatsarzneikunde, by which Casper established 
himself as a high authority on this subject. A later work, 
entitled Praktisches Handbuch der gerichtlichen Medizin, 
has passed through eight editions. 

CASTALDI, PAMFILO. (15th Century). An Italian printer 
and physician of the middle of the 15th century, supposed 
by some Italians to have been the inventor of printing. 

CAVENDISH, HENRY (1731-1810). Natural philosopher, 
eldest son of Lord Charles Cavendish, and a grandson of 
the second Duke of Devonshire, was born at Nice, October 
10. From a school at Hackney he passed in 1749 to Peter- 
house, Cambridge, but quitted it three years later without a 
degree; thereafter he devoted the whole of his long life to 
scientific investigations, having had a large fortune be¬ 
queathed him by an uncle. A silent, solitary man, he had 
his magnificent library in London, four miles from his resi¬ 
dence on Clapham Common, so that he might not encounter 
persons coming to consult it. His female domestics had 
orders to keep out of his sight, on pain of dismissal. His 
dinner he ordered daily by a note placed on the hall-table. 
He died, unmarried, at Clapham, March 10, leaving more 
than a million pounds sterling to his relatives. Cavendish 
may almost be called the founder of pneumatic chemistry. 
In 1760 he discovered the extreme levity of inflammable air, 
now known as hydrogen gas—a discovery which led to bal¬ 
loon experiments; and later, he ascertained that water 
resulted from the union of two gases—a discovery which has 
erroneously been claimed for Watt. The famous Cavendish 
Experiment was an ingenious device for estimating the 
density of the earth. Cavendish also wrote on astronomical 
instruments; and his Electrical Researches (1771-81) were 
edited by Professor Clerk Maxwell (1879). See his Life 
by G. Wilson, forming vol. I of the Cavendish Society’s 
Works (1846). 

CELSUS, AULUS CORNELIUS (Flourished 50 A. D.). A 
Latin physician, wrote on medicine, rhetoric, history, phil¬ 
osophy, war, and agriculture. His only extant work is the 
De Medicind (ed. by Daremberg, Leip. 1859; English trans. 
1756 ). 

CHAISSAIGNAC, CHARLES MARIE EDOUARD (1805-79). 
A French physician. He was born at Nantes, and in 1835 
became prosector and professor at the university and phy¬ 
sician at the Central Bureau of the Hospitals of Paris. He 
is the originator of the surgical operation known as ecrase- 
ment, by means of which tumors, piles, polypi, and other 
growths may be removed without the effusion of blood. 


56 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

The general introduction of drainage in surgery is also due 
to his initiative. His principal works include: Traite de 
I’ecrasement lineaire (1856); Legons sur la tracheometrie 
(1:855) ; Clinique chirurgicale (1854-58); Traite pratique de 
la suppuration et du chirurgical (2 vols., 1859) > Des V em- 
poisonnement du sang par matieres organiques (1873). 

CHAMBERLEN, HUGH (about 1630-1720). Born at London. 
An English physician (physician in ordinary to the king, 
1673), celebrated as the projector of a financial scheme 
designed “to make England rich and happy,” based on the 
issue of a large quantity of bank-notes on the security of 
landed property. 

CHANCA, DR., (Believed to have been Diego Alvarez 
Chanca (about 1493). A Spanish physician, native of Seville, 
who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage in 1493. 
He wrote a letter to the cathedral chapter of Seville, giving 
an account of what he saw, and this is one of the main his¬ 
torical authorities for the voyage. Nothing is known of his 
previous or subsequent life. 

CHAPTAL, JEAN ANTOINE, COUNT DE CHANTELOUP 

(1756-1832). A French chemist and statesman. He studied 
medicine and chemistry, and became professor of chemistry 
at Montpellier. Subsequently, he established chemical 
works near there, and acquired celebrity for producing 
chemicals which had hitherto been imported. It is said that 
the Spanish Government offered him a large pension to go 
to Spain, and his biographer relates that Washington wrote 
repeatedly to Chaptal inviting him to come to America. 
During the Revolution, the Committee of Public Safety put 
him in charge of the saltpetre works at Grenelle. After the 
18th Brumaire (November 9, 1799) he was made a coun¬ 
cilor of State by Napoleon and succeeded Lucien Bonaparte 
as Minister of the Interior, in which capacity he established 
chambers of commerce, a school of arts, and in many ways 
contributed to the material development of the country. In 
1804 he lost Napoleon’s favor, but he was recalled the fol¬ 
lowing year and made a member of the Senate. On Napol¬ 
eon’s return from Elba, Chaptal was made Director-General 
of Commerce and Manufactures, and Minister of State. 
The downfall of the Empire sent him to private life. He 
wrote a treatise on applied chemistry which was translated 
into the principal European languages. Consult, Flourens, 
Eloges historiques (Paris, 1856-62). 

CHARCOT, JEAN MARTIN (1825-93). French physician; 
born in Paris, November 25, died in the Morvan, Central 
France, August 18. He obtained his diploma as M.D. in 


OF MEDICAL, HISTORY 


57 


1853; was called to a place on the staff of the Salpetriere 
in 1862, from which time he continually devoted his atten¬ 
tion to the study of the nervous system, and came into inter¬ 
national prominence through his experiments in hypnotism 
and mental suggestion. Besides his principal works on 
various forms of disease, his Lemons Cliniques sur les Mala¬ 
dies du Systeme Nerveux, and his Legons du Mardi d la 
Salpetriere, he founded, in 1880, and edited the Archives de 
Neurologie, and took a leading part in the direction of the 
Revue de Medicine, Archives de Pathologie Experimental, 
and the Nouvelle Iconographie de la Salpetriere. He was a 
member of the Institute of France, of the Royal Irish 
Academy, of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Societv of 
London, and of a great number of other scientific societies 
in various countries. 

CHAULIAC, or Cauliac, or Chaulieu, Gui de (About 1302-80). 
A French surgeon-physician at Lyons and later at Avignon. 
He wrote a noted treatise on surgery, long an authority. 
Inventorium, sive collectorium partis chirurgicalis medicince 
(published 1489 or 1490). He has left a description of the 
great plague of 1348. 

CHELIUS, MAXIMILIAN JOSEPH von (1794-1876). A 
German physician. He was born at Mannheim and was 
educated at the University of Heidelberg. He was professor 
of surgery in Heidelberg from 1817 to i 864 , where he con¬ 
tributed greatly to the advancement of the science. His 
more important works include: Handbuch der Chirurgie 
(8th ed., 1858) ; Ueber die Heilung der Blasen-Scheiden- 
hsteln durch Kauterisation (1845); Zur Lehre von den 
Staphylomen des Auges (1858). 

CHENEVIX, RICHARD (1774-1830). Chemist and min¬ 
eralogist, was born in Dublin of Huguenot ancestry, and 
lived much in France. 

CHENU, JEAN CHARLES (1808-79). A French naturalist 
and army physician. He was born in Metz, and was edu¬ 
cated in Paris. In 1829 he entered the sanitary corps of the 
army, and subsequently he was a physician in the Crimean 
War. During the Franco-Prussian War he was at the head 
of the ambulance corps of the Paris press. In addition to 
publishing several valuable works on the medico-surgical 
statistics of modern French campaigns, he edited the colossal 
publication entitled, Encyclopedic d' histoire naturelle (31 
vols., 1850-61). 

CHESELDEN, WILLIAM (1688-1752). English surgeon and 
anatomist. Born near Melton, Mowbray, Leicestershire; 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


58 

died in Bath, April 10. At the age of 22 he began to give 
lectures on anatomy, and in 1711 he was chosen F.R.S. In 
1713 he published a treatise on the Anatomy of the Human 
Body, long a favorite manual of the science. He continued 
to read his lectures for more than 20 years, during which 
he gradually rose to the head of his profession. In 1723 he 
published a Treatise on the High Operation for the Stone. 
In 1733 was published his Osteography, or Anatomy of the 
Bones. Cheselden obtained in 1737 the appointment of 
chief surgeon to Chelsea Hospital, a position he held until 
his death. 

CHEVREUL, MICHEL EUGENE (1786-1889). Chemist; born 
at Angers, August 31; studied chemistry at the Col¬ 
lege de France in Paris. He lectured at the College Charle¬ 
magne, and held a technical post at the Gobelins. In 1826 
he entered the Academy of Sciences, and in 1830 became 
director of the Museum of Natural History. Early dis¬ 
coveries were those of margarine, oleine, and stearine; and 
these studies and his theory of saponification opened up vast 
industries. Between 1828 and 1864 he studied colors. This 
patriarch of the scientific world, “le doyen des etudiants de 
France,” died April 9, his hundredth birthday having been 
celebrated three years before with great enthusiasm. 

CHEYNE, GEORGE (1671-1743). Physician; born at Meth- 
lick, Aberdeenshire, and, after studying at Edinburgh under 
Pitcairn, started a London practise in 1702. Full living made 
him enormously fat (468 lbs.), as well as asthmatic, but 
from a milk and vegetable diet he derived so much benefit 
that he recommended it in all the later of his twelve medical 
treatises. He died at Bath, April 13. 

CHOULANT, JOHANN LUDWIG (1791-1861). A German 
physician; born in Dresden. He studied in Dresden and 
Leipzig, and became connected with the clinics in Dresden, 
in which he was appointed professor of therapeutics in 1823 
and director in 1828. Subsequently he acted for a number 
of years as head of the Academy. His published works in¬ 
clude the following: Lehrbuch der speciellen Pathologie 
und Therapie des Menschen (1831 and several later 
editions) ; Handbuch der Bucherkunde fur alt ere Medizin 
(2d ed., 1841) ; Bibliotheca Medico-historica (1842) ; and Die 
Anfange wissenschaftlicher Naturgeschichte (1856). 

CHRISTISON, SIR ROBERT (1797-1882). Toxicologist; born 
at Edinburgh, the son of the professor of Humanity, 
July 18. After graduating in 1819, he proceeded to London 
and Paris, and in the French capital studied toxicology 
under Orfila. He was in 1822 appointed professor of Medical 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


59 


Jurisprudence at Edinburgh, and from 1823 to 1877 held the 
chair of materia medica. He became physician to the 
Queen (1848), president of the Edinburgh Royal Society 
(1868-73), and a baronet (1871). During a vigorous old age 
he could walk, run, or climb better than any of his coevals. 
He died January 23. Besides contributing to medical 
journals, Christison wrote the standard Treatise on Poisons 
(1829), etc. See Life, edited by his sons (1885-86). 

CLARK, ALONZO (1807-87). An American physician; bom 
at Chester, Massachusetts, March 1. Was graduated in arts 
at Williams College (1823), and took his medical degree at 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York 
(1835), where he became professor of physiology and path¬ 
ology (1848), which he held until 1855, in which year the 
chair was reconstituted to embrace pathology and practical 
medicine, Clark holding his chair until 1885. He was dean 
of the faculty of the college from 1875 to 1885, and was 
president of the New York State Medical Society. Died in 
New York City, September 13. 

CLARK, SIR ANDREW (1826-93). Physician; born at Wolf- 
hill, near Coupar-Angus, October 28, and educated at Aber¬ 
deen and Edinburgh. In 1854 he settled in London, where 
he acquired a high reputation for his skill in the treatment 
of diseases affecting the respiratory, renal, and digestive 
organs. Among his patients were “George Eliot” and Mr. 
Gladstone. Created a baronet in 1883, he died November 7. 
He published several medical works. See Life by Canon 
MacColl and Dr. Allchin (1896). 

CLARK, SIR JAMES (1788-1870). Physician; born at Cul¬ 
len, Banffshire, December 14, took his M.A. at Aberdeen, 
studied medicine at Edinburgh and London, was a naval 
surgeon 1809-15, practised eight years at Rome, and in 1826 
settled in London. In 1837 Clark, who had been physician 
to the Duchess of Kent, was appointed physician in ordi¬ 
nary to Queen Victoria, and in 1838 was created a baronet. 
He wrote on climate, consumption, etc. He died June 29. 

CLARKE, JACOB AUGUSTUS LOCKHART (1817-80). An 
English physician; born in London. He was brought up in 
France, but studied medicine in England, at Guy’s and Saint 
Thomas’s hospitals. He there divided his attention between 
private medical practise and original research in microscopic 
anatomy and pathology, giving most of his time to research. 
A group of ganglion-cells in the spinal column are named 
after him, “the posterior vesicular column of Clarke.” The 
results of his investigations were published in the form of 
special papers; he wrote no books. A list of his papers may 


6o 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


be found in the Catalogue of the Library of the Medico - 
Chirurgical Society (1879). 

CLARKE, JOHN (1609-76). Born in Bedfordshire, England, 
October 8; died at Newport, R. I., April 20. An English 
physician, one of the founders of Rhode Island. He was 
driven from Massachusetts in 1638, and was one of the pur¬ 
chasers of Aquidneck (Rhode Island) from the Indians. In 
1639 he was one of the founders of Newport, where he be¬ 
came pastor of the Baptist church founded in 1644. He 
occupied various positions of trust in the colony. 

CLARKE, THOMAS (1801-67). Chemist; born at Ayr; be¬ 
came a manufacturing chemist in Glasgow, lectured on 
chemistry there, and in 1833 obtained the chair of Chemistry 
at Marischal College, Aberdeen. He discovered the soap- 
test for hardness in waters. 

CLOT, ANTOINE BARTHELEMY, or Clot Bey (1793-1868) 
A French physician; born at Grenoble. He studied at Mont¬ 
pellier, and for several years practised medicine and surgery 
at Marseilles. After 1822 he lived mostly in Egypt, where 
by order of Mehemet Ali he established hospitals and med¬ 
ical and pharmaceutical colleges and organized the medical 
service of the Army and Navy. In 1832 he was given the 
rank of an Egyptian bey, and in 1836 that of a general. 
After the death of Mehemet Ali, Clot left Egypt and re¬ 
sumed the practise of medicine at Marseilles. In 1854 he 
returned to Egypt, and became physician-in-ordinary to the 
Viceroy, Said Pasha. Clot’s great activity as an organizer 
did not prevent him from carrying out important scientific 
observations and gathering large scientific collections. His 
published works include: Relation des epidemics de cholera- 
morbus qui ont regne a, 1 ’ Heggiaz, d Suez et en Egypte 
(1832); De la peste observee en Egypte (1840); Coup 
d’ ceil sur la peste et les quarantaines (1851) ; Mehemet-Ali, 
Vice-roi d’ Egypte (1862) ; De V ophthalmie, du trichiasis, 
de l } entropion et de la cataracte observes en Egypte (1864) ; 
and Un dernier mot sur la non-contagion de la peste (1866). 

CLOWES, WILLIAM (about 1540-1604). Surgeon; served 
with Leicester in the Low Countries and on board the fleet 
that defeated the Armada. He became surgeon to the queen, 
and after a prosperous practise in London, retired to Plais- 
tow in Essex. He wrote five books in clear and vigorous 
English. His son, William (1582-1648), was also a well- 
known surgeon. 

COBBOLD, THOMAS SPENCER (1828-86). An English 
authority on parasitic worms; born at Ipswich, England; died 
March 20. He studied medicine at Edinburgh and lectured 


OP MEDICAL HISTORY 


61 


in London on botany, zoology, comparative anatomy, geology 
and helminthology, in connection with various hospitals and 
colleges. He wrote Entozoa (1864) ; Tapeworms (1866); and 
Parasites (1879) > besides numerous other works on kindred 
subjects. 

COGSWELL, MASON FITCH (1761-1830). American phy¬ 
sician; born in Canterbury, Conn., September 28; died at 
Hartford, Conn., December 10. He was adopted by Samuel 
Huntington, president of the Continental Congress and gov¬ 
ernor of Connecticut, and graduated valedictorian at Yale 
1780. He studied medicine with his brother James, at the 
soldiers’ hospital in New York during the Revolution, and 
eventually became one of the best-known surgeons in the 
country. He was the first in the United States to remove a 
cataract from the eye, and to tie the carotid artery (1803). 
Mainly through his influence the first asylum for deaf-mutes 
was founded in this country at Hartford, and his daughter 
Alice was its first pupil. He was also a founder of the Re¬ 
treat for the Insane in the same city. 

COITER, VOLCHER (1534-90). A Dutch anatomist; born at 
Groningen. He studied in France and in Italy, where he 
heard the lectures of Fallopius at Pisa, was city physician 
of Nuremberg, and later was attached as surgeon to the army 
of Johann Kasimir, Count Palatine of the Rhine. He is 
considered one of the founders of the science of pathological 
anatomy. Numerous anatomical discoveries are credited to 
him, including that of the superior muscles of the nose. 
His studies in osteology and myology are partially set 
forth in the volumes Tabulce Externarum et Internarum 
Humani Corporis Partium (1573) ; and Lectiones Gabrielis 
Fallopii (1575) which are also interesting as revealing one 
of the earliest attempts at the examination of the internal 
structure of birds. Indeed, his table, De Differentiis Avium, 
included in the latter, is among the first ornithological classi¬ 
fications. 

COLDEN, CADWALLADER (1688-1776). A Scotch physi¬ 
cian who emigrated to America in 1708 and became well 
known in his profession. He practised for ten years in 
Philadelphia, and then, in 1718, settled in New York City. 
He was the first surveyor-general of the Colony of New 
York, was a member of the provincial council, and in 1761 
was appointed Lieutenant-Governor, which office he held 
until his death. As the Governors were often changed, 
Colden was frequently called upon to act as chief executive, 
and in this capacity came into conflict, upon many occasions 
with the radical element of the “patriot” party. He devoted 


6 2 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


much attention to the study of the sciences, and especially of 
botany, and was the first to introduce the Linnaean system of 
classification into America. He published a History of the 
Five Indian Nations of Canada (1727), a work of great 
value, and a less important work on The Principles of 
Action in Matter (1752). 

COMBE, ANDREW (1797-1847). Born in Edinburgh, Octo¬ 
ber 27, and in 1823 commenced practise there. In 1836 he 
received the appointment of physician to the king of the 
Belgians, but his health failing, he returned to Scotland, 
where in 1838 he became a physician to Queen Victoria. 
He died at Gorgie, near Edinburgh, August 9. His Prin¬ 
ciples of Physiology (1834) reached a 15th edition in i860. 
See Life by George Combe (1850). 

CONOLLY, JOHN (1794-1866). Physician; born at Market 
Rasen, Lincolnshire, graduated at Edinburgh in 1821, and in 
1827 settled in London, where he was two years professor in 
University College. From 1839 to 1844 he 'was resident 
physician at Hanwell Asylum; afterwards he was visiting 
physician. Under him mechanical restraint was discon¬ 
tinued ; and although his views were admittedly not original, 
to him the revolution of our asylum management is mainly 
due. See Memoir by Sir James Clark (1869). 

CONRING, HERMANN (1606-81). Dutch scholar; born in 
Norden, East Friesland, November 9; died at Helmstedt, 
Brunswick, December 12. He studied at Helmstedt and 
Leyden, devoting himself chiefly to theology and medicine; 
was appointed, in 1632, professor of philosophy at Helmstedt, 
in 1636 professor of medicine, and remained in that city until 
his death. He was distinguished in almost every depart¬ 
ment of knowledge, and the title of a counselor was con¬ 
ferred on him by the kings of Denmark and Sweden and 
by the elector of the Palatinate. He was then made pro¬ 
fessor of law. The German emperor likewise distinguished 
him. From far and near his advice was sought in political 
and legal cases. He did a great deal for the history of the 
German empire, and for the improvement of German public 
law, in which he opened a new path. He wrote: De 
origine juris Germanici (1643) ; Bxcertationes de re publica 
Germanica (1675) ; and very many other treatises to the 
number of over 100. His works, with his biography, were 
published in 1730. 

COOKE, JOSIAH PARSONS (1827-94). An American chem¬ 
ist; born in Boston, Massachusetts, October 12; educated at 
Boston and Harvard; tutor in mathematics at Harvard in 
1849, and later instructor in chemistry, Erving professor of 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


63 


chemistry and mineralogy and director of the chemical 
laboratory. His alma mater and the University of Cam¬ 
bridge, England, have conferred several honorary degrees 
upon Dr. Cooke for his valuable works. These include 
Chemical Problems and Reactions (1853); Elements of 
Chemical Physics (i860) ; Principles of Chemical Philos¬ 
ophy (1866); The New Chemistry (1871); Religion and 
Chemistry (1864); The Credentials of Science the Warrant 
of Faith (1888). 

COOPER, SIR ASTLEY PASTON (1768-1841). Surgeon; son 
of a clergyman; born at Brooke Hall, Norfolk, August 23. 
From sixteen a medical student in London and Edinburgh, 
he lectured on anatomy at St. Thomas’s Hospital (1789) 
and at the College of Surgeons (1793), in 1800 became sur¬ 
geon to Guy’s, and in 1813 professor of comparative ana¬ 
tomy in the College of Surgeons. An essay on the loss of 
the membrana tympani gained him, in 1802, the Copley 
medal of the Royal Society, of which he was elected a fel¬ 
low in 1805. In 1804-7 appeared his great work on Hernia, 
which was followed by Dislocations and Fractures (1822), 
Anatomy and Diseases of the Breast (1829-40), Anatomy of 
the Thymus Gland (1832), etc. His annual income, which 
in the fifth year of his practise was only $500, had in 1813 
risen to $105,000. In 1817 he tried the bold (but unsuccess¬ 
ful) experiment of tying the aorta; in 1820 removed a tumor 
from the head of George IV., and was made a baronet. In 

1827 he became president of the College of Surgeons, in 

1828 sergeant-surgeon to the king, and in 1830 vice-presi¬ 
dent of the Royal Society. He died February 12, and 
was buried in the chapel of Guy’s Hospital. Surgery, 
hitherto “frightful alternatives or hazardous compromise,” 
was by him raised into a science. See Life (1843). 

COPLAND, JAMES (1791-1870). Physician, was born at 
Deerness, Orkney, studied at Edinburgh, and settled in Lon¬ 
don in 1820. He wrote a Dictionary of Practical Medicine 
(3 vols., 1832), etc. 

COTTON, NATHANIEL (1705-88). An English physician 
and poet; the friend of Young, author of Night Thoughts; 
and of the poet Cowper, whom he cared for in 1763-65 
in his sanatorium, or, as he rather grandiloquently 
styled it, “Collegium Insanorum,” at Saint Albans, Hert¬ 
fordshire, where he treated mental diseases with success. 
His Visions in Verse (1751) is his best known volume, and 
among his shorter poems, The Fireside, and To a Child 
Five Years Old, are still found in anthologies. 

COUES, ELLIOTT (1842-99). American naturalist; born in 


64 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

Portsmouth, N. H., September 9; died in Baltimore, Decem¬ 
ber 26. In 1861 he graduated from Columbian University, 
Washington, D. C., and the year following entered the 
United States army as a medical cadet. His thorough work 
as assistant-surgeon in the army, 1863-81, attracted attention, 
and for that and other services he was brevetted captain. 
For some years he continued to practice surgery or teach 
its science; but he also continued to pursue the study of 
zoology, begun while in the university. In 1873 he was ap¬ 
pointed surgeon and naturalist for the United States com¬ 
mission which defined the northern boundary. For three 
years he remained connected with the commission, and in 
addition gave some assistance to the Smithsonian Institution. 
In 1877 he was called by the Columbian University to take 
charge of a department of anatomy, and later was appointed 
by the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College as pro¬ 
fessor of biology. He was associate editor of The American 
Naturalist and other periodicals; and edited, for the Century 
Dictionary, the departments of comparative anatomy, biology, 
and zoology. He was one of the founders of the American 
Ornithologists’ Union, and an active member of many 
scientific societies in Europe and America. He was presi¬ 
dent of the board of control of the American branch of the 
Theosophical Society of India. His last years were given 
chiefly to the Smithsonian Institution. He has left a large 
number of valuable works on mammalogy and ornithology, 
some of which are: Key to North American Birds (1872) ; 
Field Ornithology (1874) ; New Key to North American 
Birds; Birds of the Northwest (1874) ; Fur Bearing 
Animals (1877) ; Birds of the Colorado Valley (1878) ; 
New England Bird Life (1881) ; Check List of North Amer¬ 
ican Birds (1884) ; Biogen (1884); The Damon of Darwin 
(1884); Our Native Birds. 

COWPER, WILLIAM (1666-1709). An English surgeon; 
born at Petersfield in Sussex. He was made a barber-sur¬ 
geon in 1691, and became known not only as a skillful prac¬ 
titioner, but also as a thorough anatomist and pathologist. 
Among his permanent contributions to anatomical science, 
the discovery of the now so-called Cowper’s glands (q. v.), 
will preserve his name. In 1696 he was made a Fellow of 
the Royal Society. His published works include the follow¬ 
ing: Myotomia Reformata (1694; 2d ed., revised by Jurin, 
Pemberton and Tanner, 1724) ; The Anatomy of Human 
Bodies (1698; 2d ed., 1737); Glandularum Quarundam 
nuper Detectarum Ductnumque earum Excretionum Descrip- 
tio cum Figuris (1702). 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


65 

CRAIK, JAMES (1731-1814). Born in Scotland; died in 
Fairfax County, Va., February 6. A Scottish-American 
physician. He accompanied Washington in the expedition 
against the t rench and Indians in 1754; served as physician 
under General Braddock in 1755; entered the medical ser¬ 
vice of the Continental army 1775; and became the family 
physician of Washington, whom he attended in his last ill¬ 
ness. On his authority rests the anecdote of the Indian 
chief who, at Braddock’s defeat, discharged his rifle fifteen 
times at Washington without effect, and who years after 
made a long journey to see the man whom he supposed to 
enjoy a charmed existence. 

CREDE, KARL SIEGMUND FRANZ (1819-92). A German 
gynecologist; born in Berlin. He studied medicine in Ber¬ 
lin and in Heidelberg, and in 1852 was made director of the 
School of Midwifery and of the obstetric department of the 
Charite in Berlin. Four years later he was made professor 
of obstetrics and director of the lying-in hospital in Leip¬ 
zig. His published works include the following: Klinische 
Vortrdge iiber Geburtshilfe (1853-54); Die Verhiitung der 
Augenentziindung der Neugebornen (1884) ; Gesunde und 
kranke Wdchnerinnen (1886) ; Lehrbuch der Hebammen 
(6th ed., revised by Leopold and Zweifel, Leipzig, 1897). 
From 1853 to 1869 he was co-editor of the Monatsschrift 
fur Geburtskunde, and, for many years of the Archiv fur 
Gyndkologie. 

CRITCHETT, GEORGE (1817-82). Ophthalmic surgeon; 
born at London; from 1846 was assistant-surgeon and (1861- 
63 ) surgeon to the London Hospital, and in 1876 became 
ophthalmic surgeon and lecturer at the Middlesex Hospital, 
where his operations acquired a European fame. He died 
November 1, leaving a successor in his son, George Ander¬ 
son Critchett, (born December 18, 1845). 

CRUIKSHANK, WILLIAM CUMBERLAND (1745-1800). 
Born at Edinburgh; died at London, June 27. A Scottish 
anatomist. He wrote Anatomy of the Absorbent Vessels 
(1786), etc. 

CRUVEILHIER, JEAN (1791-1874. A French anatomist; 
was born at Limoges. In 1825 he became professor of ana¬ 
tomy in the university of Paris, and ten years later he was 
the first occupant of the recently founded chair of pathologi¬ 
cal anatomy. He was also created Commander of the 
Legion of Honor. 

CTESIAS (5th Century B. C.). A Greek physician and his¬ 
torian. He was born of an Asclepiad family at Cnidus in 
Caria, and was in the early part of his life physician to 
5 


66 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


Artaxerxes Mnemon, having, according to Diodorus Siculus, 
been taken prisoner of war. He was the author of a treatise 
on rivers, another on the Persian revenues, a history of 
India, which is only of value as recording the beliefs of the 
Persians about India, and, most famous of all, a history of 
Persia—the Persica, written in opposition to Herodotus, and 
professing to be founded on the Persian royal archives. Of 
his two histories we possess abridgements by Photius, which 
have been published by Stephens, (Paris, I557" I 594)* As 
to the worth of the Persica, there has been much contro¬ 
versy, both in ancient and modern times. Its chief modern 
defenders have been Freret, in the Memoires de V Academie 
des Inscriptions, vol. v., and Bahr, in his Prolegomenon , to 
his edition of what has come down to us of the works of 
Ctesias (Frankfort, 1824). Aristotle rejected the testimony 
of Ctesias, which is opposed to that of the Jewish Scriptures, 
of the Persian historian Berosus, and of recently discovered 
cuneiform inscriptions. 

CULLEN, WILLIAM (1710-90). Physician; born at Hamil¬ 
ton, April 15. After some experience as an apprentice 
apothecary in Glasgow, on board ship, and in London, he 
studied at Edinburgh under Munro, and started practise in 
his native town. William Hunter was a pupil. In 1740 
Cullen graduated M.D. at Glasgow, established himself there 
as a physician, and lectured on medicine. In 1751 he was 
appointed on the chair of medicine, but in 1755 removed to 
Edinburgh, where for thirty-five years he occupied succes¬ 
sively the chairs of chemistry, institute of medicine, and 
medicine, besides teaching clinically in the infirmary. To 
him is largely due the recognition of the important part 
played by the nervous system in health and disease. Many of 
his speculations as to reflex nervous action of sensory and 
motor fibres and the connection of sensory and motor nerves 
are accepted facts. He bitterly opposed the Brunonion system 
(see Brown, John). He died February 5. Cullen’s chief 
works are Synopsis Nosologies Methodicce (1769) ; Institu¬ 
tions of Medicine (1772); Practise of Physic (1776-84) ; 
Treatise of Materia Medica (1789). See Life by Thomson 
and Craigie (2 vols. 1832-59). 

CULPEPER, NICHOLAS (1616-54). Born in London; 
studied at Cambridge, and started, in 1640, to practise astrol¬ 
ogy and physic in Spitalfields. In 1649 he published an 
English translation of the College of Physicians' Pharma¬ 
copoeia, A Physical Directory, renamed in 1654 Pharma¬ 
copoeia Londinensis, or the London Dispensatory. This in¬ 
fringement of a close monopoly, together with his Puritan- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


67 

ism, brought Culpeper many enemies. In 1653 appeared 
The English Physician Enlarged, on the Herbal Both 
books had an enormous sale, and both are included in Dr. 
Gordon’s collective edition of his Works (4 vols. 1802). 

CURRIE, JAMES (1756-1805). The earliest editor of Burns; 
was born at Kirkpatrick-Fleming manse, Dumfriesshire, 
May 31. He spent five years at Cabin Point, Virginia, in a 
mercantile situation (1771-76), then studied medicine at 
Edinburgh and Glasgow; and, settling in Liverpool in 1780, 
soon obtained a good practise. His chief medical work was 
the able Reports of the Effects of Water in Febrile Disease 
( I 797)> but he is best remembered by his edition of Burns 
(r8oo, 7th ed. 1813), with a Life and criticism of the poet’s 
writings, which he undertook solely for the benefit of Burns’ 
family. He died at Sidmouth, August 31. See Life by his 
son (1831). 

CUVIER, GEORGES LEOPOLD CHRETIEN FREDERIC 
DAGOBERT (1769-1832). Foremost of comparative ana¬ 
tomists ; better known by his adopted literary title, “Georges 
Cuvier,” was born August 24, at Montbeliard, then belong¬ 
ing to Wurtemberg, his ancestors being Huguenot refugees. 
He studied for the ministry at Stuttgart; and his love for 
zoology was confirmed by residence as a tutor on the Nor¬ 
mandy coast (1788-94). In 1795 through Geoffroy Saint- 
Hilaire he was appointed assistant professor of Comparative 
Anatomy in the Jardin des Plantes, and elected a member 
of the French Institute; in 1803 he became permanent sec¬ 
retary of the Academy of Sciences. After the Restoration 
he was made Chancellor of the University of Paris, admitted 
into the cabinet by Louis XVIII., and in 1826 created grand- 
officer of the Legion of Honor. His opposition to the royal 
measures restricting the freedom of the press lost him the 
favor of Charles X.; but under Louis-Philippe he was made 
a peer of France in 1831, and next year Minister of the In¬ 
terior. He died of paralysis, May 13. In his plans for 
national education, in his labors for the French Protestant 
Church, and in scientific work, he was alike indefatigable. 
He was conspicuous for an unsurpassed grasp of facts 
rather than for originality or power of generalisation, and 
proved a formidable opponent of the Theory of Descent. 
Although his four types—Vertebrate, Mollusc, Articulate, 
and Radiate—are now known to give a false simplicity to 
nature, his structural method made classification more 
natural. Now also palaeontology was linked to comparative 
anatomy. Among Cuvier’s most important works are: 
Legons d’ Anatomie Comparee (1801-5); IS Anatomie des 


68 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


Mollusques (1816); Les Ossements Fossiles des Quad¬ 
ruples (1821-24); Histoire naturelle des Poissons (1828- 
49), written in concert with Valenciennes. Best known is Le 
Regne Animal distrubue d’ apres son Organisation (1817), 
which has passed through so many editors’ hands. See Mrs. 
R. Lee’s Memoirs of Baron Cuvier (1833), Pasquier’s Eloge 
O833), Carus’s Geschichte der Zoologie (1872), Haeckel’s 
History of Creation (1876), and Ducrotay de Blainville’s 
Cuvier et Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1890). 

CZERNAK, JOHANN NEPOMUK (1828-73) Physiologist, 
the founder of laryngoscopy, was born in Prague, studied at 
Vienna, Breslau, and Wurzburg, and was professor succes¬ 
sively at Cracow, Pesth, Jena, and Leipzig. His collected 
works were published in 1879. 

D 

DALTON, JOHN (1766-1844). Chemist; was born Septem¬ 
ber 6, at Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, the son of a Quaker 
weaver. He went to a Quaker school at Pardshaw Hall, 
and after 1781 became assistant in a boarding-school kept by 
a cousin in Kendal, of which in 1785 he and a brother be¬ 
came the proprietors. Here his love of mathematical and 
physical studies was developed, and here in 1787 he com¬ 
menced a meteorological journal continued all his life, re¬ 
cording 200,000 observations. He collected butterflies and 
gathered a great hortus siccus and herbarium. In 1793 he 
was appointed teacher of mathematics and the physical 
sciences in New College, Manchester, and later supported 
himself in Manchester by private tuition. In 1794 he first 
described color-blindness (“Daltonism”), exemplified in his 
own case and that of his brother. He was an F.R.S. and an 
associate of the Paris Academy. In 1833 he received a pen¬ 
sion of $650, raised in 1836 to $1,500. In 1837 he had a shock 
of paralysis, and died at Manchester, July 27. His chief phys¬ 
ical researches were on mixed gases, the force of steam, the 
elasticity of vapors, and the expansion of gases by heat; 
and in chemistry on the absorption of gases by water, on 
carbonic acid, carburetted hydrogen, etc., while his atomic 
theory elevated chemistry to a science. Dalton was un¬ 
questionably one of the greatest of chemists. In his habits 
he was simple, in manners grave, and reserved but kindly. 
Pie “never found time” to marry. See Lives by Dr. Angus 
Smith (1836), Dr. Henry (1854), Lonsdale (1874), and Sir 
H. Roscoe (1895). 

DALTON, JOHN CALL (1825-89). An American physiolo¬ 
gist and physician; born in Chelmsford. Massachusetts, Feb- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


69 

ruary 2, graduated at Harvard in 1844. He became, suc¬ 
cessively, professor of physiology in the University of Buf¬ 
falo, the Vermont Medical College and the New York Col¬ 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons. During the Civil War he 
was an army surgeon. He published a Treatise on Human 
Physiology, which passed through numerous editions; Ex¬ 
perimental Methods of Medicine; Topographical Anatomy 
of the Brain; and other works. He died February 12. 

DARCET, JEAN (1725-1801). French physician and chemist; 
born in Donazit, September 7; died in Paris, February 13. 
He accompanied the celebrated Montesquieu to Paris in 1742, 
and remained with him until his death as a literary assist¬ 
ant. He afterward devoted himself to chemistry, especially 
to technical chemistry, was appointed professor of chemistry 
in the College of France, and regent of the medical faculty. 
Darcet made many experiments with a view to the im¬ 
provement of the manufacture of porcelain. He also tried 
the effect of fire on the various kinds of earths, and demon¬ 
strated the volatility of the diamond. In 1776 he published 
a memoir on the geology of the Pyrenees. He succeeded 
Macquer as a member of the Academy of Sciences and di¬ 
rector of the manufactory of Sevres. He was afterward 
appointed inspector-general of the assay of coin, and in¬ 
spector of the Gobelin manufactory. He made several im¬ 
portant chemical discoveries, and contributed much co the 
present improved state of the science. A fusible alloy of 
lead, bismuth, and tin is named after him. 

DARCET, JEAN PIERRE JOSEPH (1777-1844). A French 
chemist; born in Paris, August 31. His researches led to 
great improvement in the manufacture of gunpowder, and 
the composition of bronze, and of steel. M. Darcet also 
discovered a method of producing soda from common salt. 
His father, Jean Darcet, directed the manufacture of por¬ 
celain at Sevres, and proved the combustibility of the dia¬ 
mond. He died in Paris, August 2. 

DARWIN, ERASMUS (1731-1802). Physician and poet; was 
born at Elston Hall, near Newark, December 12, entered 
St. John’s College, Cambridge, in 1750, graduated B.A. in 
1754, and then studied medicine at Edinburgh. After trying 
a practise at Nottingham, he removed to Lichfield, where he 
married and became a popular physician and prominent fig¬ 
ure, from his ability, his radical and freethinking opinions, 
his poetry, his eight-acre botanical garden, and his imperious 
advocacy of temperance in drinking. After his second mar¬ 
riage in 1781, he settled in Derby, and then at Breadsall 
Priory, where he died suddenly, April 18. By his first wife 


A BIOGRAPHI CAL CYCLOPEDIA 


7 ° 

he was grandfather of Charles Darwin; by his second of 
Francis Galton. His philosophy of nature is inconsequent 
s and untenable, but many of his ideas are original and con¬ 
tain the germs of important truths. Sometimes he is ex¬ 
ceedingly happy in seeing analogies in nature; at other times 
he is quite fantastical. In his verse, too, amid frequent ex¬ 
travagance and incomprehensibility, there burst forth strains 
of genuine poetry. The “Loves of the Plants” (1789), a 
part of his Botanic Garden, was happily burlesqued in the 
“Loves of the Triangles” in the Anti-Jacobin. Interest 
in Darwin’s speculations has been revived by the recognition 
of his partial anticipation of Lamarck’s views on evolution 
and so of his own famous grandson’s. His chief prose works 
are Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life (1794-96) and 
Phytologia, or Philosophy of Agriculture ( 1799 ) - See 
Krause’s Erasmus Darwin (Eng. trans. 1879). 

DAUGLISH, JOHN (1824-64). An Edinburgh M.D. who in 
1856 invented aerated bread; was born in London and died 
at Malvern. 

DAVIS, EDWIN HAMILTON (1811-1888). An American phy¬ 
sician and archaeologist. Born in Ross County, Ohio, Jan¬ 
uary 22; died, at New York, May 15. His works include 
“Monuments of the Mississippi Valley” (in Smithsonian 
Contributions to Knowledge, 1848), etc. 

DAVY, SIR HUMPHREY (1778-1829). Chemist; was bom 
December 17, at Penzance, where his father was a wood- 
carver. At the school there and at Truro he developed a 
taste for story-telling, poetry, and angling, and for experi¬ 
mental science. In 1795 he was apprenticed to a Penzance 
surgeon, wrote verses, made chemical experiments, entered 
on an encyclopaedic course of study, and in 1797 seriously 
took up chemistry. Dr. Beddoes, who in 1798 established a 
Pneumatic Institute at Clifton, took him as his assistant. 
Here he met Coleridge and Southey, and experimented on 
the respiration of gases (more than once nearly losing his 
life), and discovered the effect of laughing-gas. The ac¬ 
count of his Researches, Chemical and Philosophical (1799), 
led to his appointment as lecturer to the Royal Institution. 
He delivered his first lecture in 1801; and hjs eloquence and 
the novelty of his experiments soon attracted brilliant 
audiences. In 1803 he began researches in agriculture, on 
which he delivered his epoch-making lectures —Elements of 
Agricultural Chemistry (1813). His fame chiefly rests in 
the views originated in his Bakerian lecture on Some Chem¬ 
ical Agencies of Electricity (1806), followed up by the grand 
discovery that the alkalies and earths are compound sub- 


OF MEDICAL, HISTORY 


7 1 


stances formed by oxygen united with metallic bases. He 
first decomposed potash in 1807; when he saw the globules 
of the new metal, potassium, his delight was ecstatic. He 
next decomposed soda and the alkaline earths, baryta, 
strontia, lime, and magnesia; and discovered the new metals, 
sodium, barium, strontium, calcium, and magnesium. The 
earths proper proved to consist of metals united to oxygen. 
He lectured in Dublin in 1808-9, and received the LL.D. of 
Trinity College. In 1812 Davy was knighted, and married 
Mrs. Apreece, nee Jane Kerr (1780-1855), a lady of consider¬ 
able wealth; in 1813 he resigned the chemical chair of the 
Royal Institution, when he was elected honorary professor 
of chemistry. To investigate his new theory of volcanic 
action he visited the continent with Faraday, and was re¬ 
ceived with the greatest distinction by the French savans, 
though England and France were at war. In 1815 he in¬ 
vestigated fire-damp and invented the safety-lamp. He was 
created a baronet in 1818, and in 1820 succeeded Sir Joseph 
Banks as President of the Royal Society. In 1820-23 his 
researches on electro-magnetism were communicated to the 
society. In 1826 he had an apoplectic attack. He twice 
visited the Continent for the recovery of his health, and died 
at Geneva, May 20. Among his writings were Elements of 
Chemical Philosophy (1812) ; On the Safety-lamp (1818) ; 
Salmonia, or Days of Fly-fishing (1828) ; and Consolations 
in Travel (1830)—all included in his Collected Works (9 
vols. 1839-40). See Memoirs (1836) by his brother John 
Davy, M.D. (1790-1868), who also wrote on Ceylon, physiol¬ 
ogy, the Ionian Islands, etc.; Sir Humphrey’s Fragmentary 
Remains (1858); and Lives by Dr. Paris (1831) and Dr. 
T. E. Thorpe (1896). 

DEANE, JAMES (1801-58). An American geologist; born in 
Colerain, Mass., February 14; died in Greenfield, Mass., June 
8. He studied law and medicine, and practised the latter. 
Much of his life was given to geological research, and he 
was the discoverer of fossil footprints in the Red Sandstone 
of the Connecticut Valley. This discovery attracted wide¬ 
spread attention on the part of geologists, and gave rise to a 
careful study of that region on the part of several of the 
more prominent naturalists. An illustrated work containing 
the results of his geological labors has been issued since his 
death by the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Deane was a 
contributor to scientific and medical journals. 

DEJEAN, PIERRE FRANQOISE AIME AUGUSTE (1780-1845) 
A French general and entomologist, son of Jean Francois 
Aime, Count Dejean. He was born at Amiens, and took up 


72 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


the study of medicine, but soon entered Napoleon’s army, 
with which he went to Spain and to Russia. In the army 
he attained the rank of general of division, and at Waterloo 
acted as adjutant to the Emperor. Devoting all his leisure 
to science, Dejean made extensive collections of insects, 
and contributed much to our knowledge of Coleoptera 
(beetles). He is the author of the following works: 
Iconographie des coleopteres d ’ Europe (1829-36) ; Species 
generates des colepteres (1825-37) ; and Histoire naturelle et 
iconographie des coleopteres d’ Europe . The last-named 
work is still a standard on the subject of Coleoptera. The 
works were written by Dejean in conjunction with Boisduval 
and Aube. 

DESAULT, PIERRE JOSEPH (1744-95). A brilliant French 

anatomist and surgeon. He became professor of anatomy 
in Paris in 1776; was admitted to membership in the cor¬ 
poration of surgeons in the same year, §md subsequently held 
various positions of honor. In 1782, he was appointed sur¬ 
geon-major to the De la Charite Hospital, and came to be 
regarded as one of the ablest surgeons of his time. He next 
went to the Hotel Dieu, and after Moreau’s death the sur¬ 
gical department of the hospital was entrusted to him. 
There he instituted a clinical school of surgery—the first 
of its type—attracting pupils from all over Europe. He in¬ 
troduced system and precision into surgery, and made many 
valuable improvements in the instruments used in that pro¬ 
fession. His pupil, the celebrated Bichat, published his 
CEuvres chirurgicales (1798-1803). Consult Labrune, Etude 
sur la vie et les travaux de Desault (Besanqon, 1867). 

DESGENETTES, NICOLAS RENE DUFRICHE (1762-1837)'. 
A French military surgeon; born in Alenqon, May 23; died 
February 3. He was chief of the medical corps of the army 
of Italy in 1795-96, and of the Grand Army of the Empire 
until the battle of Waterloo. He was dismissed from his 
position in the army at the Restoration, and shortly after¬ 
ward was obliged to give up his professorship in the Col¬ 
lege of France. He was, however, restored in part, by his 
election in 1832 to the position of physician of the In- 
valides. He wrote a number of medical treatises, one of 
which, The Medical History of the Army of the East (1802), 
is valued to-day. 

DEWEES, WILLIAM POTTS (1768-1841). An American phy¬ 
sician; born in Pottsgrove, Pennsylvania, May 5; died in 
Philadelphia, May 18. He studied medicine at the Uni¬ 
versity of Pennsylvania, and began to practise at Abington. 
The yellow fever depleted the ranks of Philadelphia phy- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


73 


sicians in 1793 and Dr. Dewees removed to that city. He 
won distinction in the department of obstetrics, and in 1826 
was appointed to a professorship of obstetrics and diseases 
of women and children in his alma mater. He has written 
medical books on these two specialties and on the Practise 
of Medicine (1830). 

DICKSON, SAMUEL HENRY (1798-1872). An American phy¬ 
sician and author; born in Charleston, South Carolina, Sep¬ 
tember 20; died in Philadelphia, March 31. He was grad¬ 
uated at Yale in 1814; as M.D. at the University of Pennsyl¬ 
vania in 1819; and received the degree of LL.D. from the 
University of New York, 1853. From 1824 to 1858, with a 
brief interval, he was professor of the institutes and prac¬ 
tise of medicine in the Charleston, South Carolina, Medical 
College, which he helped to found. From 1847 to 1850 he 
held a similar chair in the University of New York, and 
from 1858 until his death, was professor in Jefferson Med¬ 
ical College, Philadelphia. Owing to his genial, social and 
literary accomplishments, he has been compared to Oliver 
Wendell Holmes, whom he also resembled in the classically 
elegant style of his medical writings. Among his medical 
works are Studies in Pathology and Therapeutics (1867). 
He also wrote occasional essays and poems, and a treatise 
to prove the inferiority of the negro race. 

DIEFFENBACH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH (1792-1847). A Ger¬ 
man surgeon; born at Konigsberg, February 1; died at Ber¬ 
lin, November 11; served as a volunteer in a Mecklen¬ 
burg corps during the campaigns of liberation (1813-15) ; 
and while studying surgery at Konigsberg and Bonn, sup¬ 
ported himself by giving lessons in fencing and swimming. 
He followed the course of the schools of Vienna and Paris, 
and received the degree of doctor at Wurzburg in 1822, the 
subject of his thesis being Nennulla de Regeneratione et 
Transplantatione. He settled at Berlin, where his talent and 
manual skill as an operator gained him great distinction, and 
in 1840 he was surgeon-in-chief of the Charity Hospital 
there. Science is indebted to him for new instruments in¬ 
vented, and new methods of forming artificial noses, eyelids, 
lips, etc., and of curing stammering and squinting. Among 
his works are Chirurgische Erfahrungen (1829-34); Ueber 
die Durchschneidung der Schnen und Muskeln (1841) ; and 
Der Mther gegen den Schmers (1847). 

DIMSDALE, THOMAS (1712-1800). A physician who wrote 
on inoculation; went to Russia, in 1768 and 1874 to inocu¬ 
late the Empress Catharine, and sat for Hertford, England, 
in two parliaments. 


74 


A BIOGRAPHICAL, CYCLOPEDIA 


DIOSCORDIES, PEDANIUS (First Century A. D.). A. Greek 
physician from Anazarba in Cilicia, lived in the ist cen¬ 
tury A. D., and left a great work on materia medica. The 
best edition is Sprengel (2 vols. 1829-30). 

DIPPEL, JOHANN KONRAD (1673-1734)• A German chem< 
ist and alchemist, inventor of the loathsome and discarded 
panacea (Dippel’s Animal Oil). See Life by Bender (Bonn, 
1882). 

DOBEREINER, JOHANN WOLFGANG (1780-1849). A chem¬ 
ist, of Jena, Saxe-Weimar, Germany; inventor of Dober- 
eine/s Lamp. 

DOLLINGER, IGNAZ (1770-1841). Born at Bamberg, Bavaria, 
May 24; died at Munich, January 14. A German physiol¬ 
ogist and comparative anatomist; professor successively at 
Bamberg, Wurzburg, Landshut, and Munich. He wrote 
Grundziige der Physiologie (1835), Werth und Bedeutung 
der vergleichenden Anatomie (1814), etc. 

DOVER, THOMAS (1660-1742). A London M.D., the inventor 
of “Dover’s Powder.” In 1709, while captain of a privateer, 
rescued Alexander Selkirk from the island of Juan Fer¬ 
nandez. 

DOWLER, BENNET (1797-1879). American physician, born 
in Moundsville, Va., April 16; died in New Orleans. He 
graduated from the University of Maryland, and settling in 
New Orleans founded the New Orleans Academy of 
Sciences, and was for a number of years editor of the Med¬ 
ical and Surgical Journal. He made a numbef of experi¬ 
ments with the human body immediately after death, result¬ 
ing in important discoveries in regard to capillary circula¬ 
tion, contractibility, etc., and also investigated the subject of 
animal heat. He wrote Tableau of the Yellow Fever of 

1853 (1854). 

DRAKE, DANIEL (1785-1852). An American physician; born 
in Plainfield, N. J., October 20; died in Cincinnati, Ohio, 
November 6. He was graduated from the University of 
Pennsylvania in 1815, and settled for a time in Cincinnati. 
He was professor of materia medica in Transylvania Uni¬ 
versity, Ky., and taught in other medical schools until 1820, 
when he organized the Medical School of Ohio, in Cincin¬ 
nati ; he was professor there, and in the University of Louis¬ 
ville, Ky. He wrote Pictures of Cincinnati and Miami 
County (1815); Practical Treatise on the History , Preven¬ 
tion and Treatment of Epidemic Cholera (1832) ; Systematic 
Treatise on the Principal Diseases of the Interior Valley of 
North America (1850-54); and was editor of the Western 
Medical and Physical Journal. 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


75 


DRAKE, FRANCIS (1696-1771). An English surgeon; was 
born at Pontefract and died at Beverley. He was author of 
Eboracum (1736), and, conjointly with the bookseller 
Caesar Ward, of the Parliamentary History of England (22 
vols. 1751-60). 

DRAKE, NATHAN (1766-1836). English physician; born at 
York, for forty years practised at Hadleigh, Suffolk. He 
wrote Shakespeare and his Times (1817) and Memorials of 
Shakespeare (1828). 

DRAPER, JOHN CHRISTOPHER (1835-1885). American phy¬ 
sician; born in Prince Edward County, Va., March 31; 
died in New York, December 20. He was graduated from 
the medical department of New York University, was pro¬ 
fessor of physiology in that institution 1858-60, and pro¬ 
fessor of chemistry in the medical department in 1866-85. 
He was also professor of chemistry at Cooper Union, and 
professor of physiology and natural history at the College of 
the City of New York. He wrote On Respiration (1856) ; 
Text-book on Anatomy, Physiology and Hygiene (1866) ; 
Practical Laboratory Course in Medical Chemistry (1882) ; 
Text-Book of Medical Physics (1885). 

DRAPER, JOHN WILLIAM (1811-82). American author and 
man of science; born at St. Helens, near Liverpool, May 5, 
and in 1833 emigrated to Virginia. In 1839 he became pro¬ 
fessor of Chemistry in the University of New York, and 
from 1850 to 1873 was president of its medical department. 
Among his works are On the Forces that Produce the 
Organization of Plants (1844), Physiology (1856), History 
of the Intellectual Development of Europe (1862), History 
of the American Civil War (1867-70), History of the Con¬ 
flict between Science and Religion (1874), and Scientific 
Memoirs (1878). He died January 4. 

DUBOIS-REYMOND, EMIL (1818-96). A German physiolo¬ 
gist; born in Berlin, November 7. In 1841 he began the re¬ 
searches in animal electricity with which his name is chiefly 
identified. In 1858 he succeeded Johannes Muller in the 
chair of physiology at Berlin, and in 1867 he was elected 
permanent secretary of the Academy of Sciences. He wrote 
a number of articles descriptive of his experiments. Among 
them are A Description of the Apparatus and Experiments 
of Electro-Physiology (1863) ; Leibnitz and Modern Science 
(1871); and The Limits of Our Knowledge of Nature 
(1872). 

DUCHENNE, GUILLAUME BENJAMIN (1806-75). A French 
physician, called “Duchenne de Boulogne/ born at Bou- 
logne-sur-Mer, and educated in Paris. Here he became 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


76 

established in 1842, and soon acquired fame as an investi¬ 
gator in electric diagnosis and electrotherapeutics, of which 
science he is sometimes considered the founder. He was a 
pioneer in the localization of the electric current and its 
adaptation in determining the physiology of various mus¬ 
cles of the body. Scarcely less important were his researches 
on the pathology of the nervous system. His numerous pub¬ 
lications include: De V electrisation localisee et de son ap¬ 
plication a la pathologie et a la therapeutique (3d ed., 1872) ; 
Mecanisme de la physionomie humaine, ou analyse electro- 
physiologique de V expression des passions (with 72 photo¬ 
graphic illustrations, 1862) ; Physiologie des mouvements, 
etc. (1867). 

DUDLEY, BENJAMIN WINSLOW (1785-1870). Born in 
Spottsylvania County, Va., April 12; died at Lexington, Ky., 
January 20. An American surgeon, especially noted as a 
lithotomist. « 

DUFFIELD, ALEXANDER JAMES (1821-90). Chemist, min¬ 
ing engineer, traveler, author, and translator of Don Quix¬ 
ote; was born at Tettenhall, Staffordshire, England. See 
his Recollections of Travel (1889). 

DUFOUR, JEAN MARIE LEON (1780-1865). A French en¬ 
tomologist. He was born at Saint Sever-sur-l’Adour, 
where he practised medicine until his death. His investiga¬ 
tions on the anatomy and metamorphoses of spiders, grass¬ 
hoppers, scorpions, and other insects appeared in a series of 
more than two hundred articles which were published in the 
Annals des sciences naturelles * the Annals de la Societe 
entomologique de France, and similar publications, during a 
period of fifty years (1811-61). One of his most important 
discoveries was that of the parasitic Gregarindse. Among 
his principal works may be mentioned Recherches sur les 
hemipteres (1833). 

DUMAS, JEAN BAPTISTE ANDRE (1800-84). A French 
chemist; born at Alais, Gard, July 14. He studied at Geneva, 
and coming to Paris in 1821, was first a lecturer in the Ecole 
Polytechnique, then professor of Chemistry in the Athenee, 
the ficole Centrale (founded by himself), and finally, the 
SorBonne. He came forward into public life (1849), was 
appointed Master of the Mint (1868), and elected to the 
Academy (1875), and died at Cannes, April 11. His chief 
works are Traite de Chimie appliquee aux Arts and Legons 
sur la Philosophie Chimique. See forty-page memoir by A. 
W. Hofman in Nature, February 6, 1880. 

DUMERIL, ANDRE MARIE CONSTANT (1774-1860). French 
physician and zoologist; born at Amiens, France, January 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 77 

i; died, at Paris, August 2. He published Brpetologie gett¬ 
er ale (1835-51), etc. 

DUNCAN, JAMES MATTHEWS (1826-90). Born at Aber¬ 
deen, in 1877, was appointed to the chair of obstetric sur¬ 
gery at St. Bartholomew’s, London. 

DUNGLISON, ROBLEY (1798-1869). Physician; born at Kes¬ 
wick, studied medicine in London, Edinburgh, and Erlangen, 
and from 1824 held professorships in the United States, 
where he was the friend of Presidents Jefferson and Madi¬ 
son. See Life (1870). 

DUPUYTREN, GUILLAUME, BARON (1777-1835). Bom 
Pierre-Buffiere, Haute-Vienne, France. Professor of clini¬ 
cal surgery in Paris, from 1812; invented many surgical 
instruments. See Life by Cruveilhier (1841). 

DUTROCHET, RENE JOACHIM HENRI (1776-1847). An em¬ 
inent French physician. In 1808 he was appointed by Joseph 
Bonaparte head physician to the military hospital at Bur¬ 
gos, Spain, then devastated by typhus fever. He returned to 
France in the following year, and gave himself up exclu¬ 
sively to the study of physics and physiology. In 1831 he 
became a member of the Institute. The results of his re¬ 
searches are contained in his Memoirs pour servir d I’his- 
toire anatomique et physiologique des vegetaux et des atti- 
maux (1837). 

DUVERNEY, GUICHARD JOSEPH (1648-1730). A French 
anatomist; born August 5; died, September 10. 

DWIGHT, BENJAMIN WOOLSEY (1780-1850). An American 
physician, son of Timothy Dwight of Yale; born in North¬ 
ampton, Massachusetts, February 10. He was in early life 
a physician, and wrote a valuable treatise on Chronic De¬ 
bility of the Stomach. He became a farmer near Clinton, 
and was for many years treasurer of Hamilton College. He 
died in Clinton, New York, May 18. 

DWIGHT, NATHANIEL (1770-1831). An American physician; 
born in Northampton, Mass., and was the brother of the 
elder Timothy Dwight, president of Yale. He was probably 
the first to propose the present system of retreats for the 
insane; and his Short System of the Geography of the 
World (1814) was the first school geography published in 
the United States. He also wrote A Compendious History 
of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (1831). 

E 

EARLE, PLINY (1809-92). American physician; born in Lei¬ 
cester, Mass., December 31. He was physician in Blooming- 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


7 « 

dale Asylum (1844-49), and superintendent of the state hos¬ 
pital for the insane at Northampton, Massachusetts, for 
more than twenty years. He first introduced the system, 
now in general use of lecturing to the insane on topics of 
scientific and general interest. He was a prominent member 
of the American Medical Association and other societies, 
and was a frequent contributor to medical journals. He 
published The Curability of Insanity (1887), and a number 
of other works in regard to the insane. He died in North¬ 
ampton, Massachusetts, May 18. 

ECKER, ALEXANDER (181675). A German anatomist and 
anthropologist; born at Freiburg, and was educated at the 
university in that city, and at Heidelberg, and Vienna. He 
was professor of anatomy and physiology at Basel from 
1844 to 1850, when he was called in the same capacity to 
Freiburg, where he formed a valuable anthropological col¬ 
lection. The Museum of Ethnology at Freiburg was also 
established by him. He was co-editor of the Archiv fur 
Anthropologie, and wrote the following important publica¬ 
tions : Brlduterungstafeln zur Physiologie und Bntwick- 
lungsgeschichte (1850-59), Crania Germanice, with 38 plates 
(1863-65); Die Hirnwindungen des Menschen (1869); Die 
Anatomie des Frosches, ein Handbuch fiir Physiologen, 
Aerzte und Studierende (3 parts, 1864-82; part I, 3d ed. 
1896). 

EICHWALD, EDUARD GEORG (1838-89). A Russian phy¬ 
sician; son of Karl Eduard Eichwald, bom at Vilna, and 
educated at the Medico-Surgical Academy at Saint Peters¬ 
burg. He was physician-in-ordinary, from 1865-1875, to the 
Grand Duchess Helen A. Pavlovna, who made him the lega¬ 
tee of a sum which enabled him to found the clinical insti¬ 
tute, subsequently named in honor of its patroness. In 1866 
Eichwald was appointed professor of medical diagnosis and 
general therapy at the Medico-Surgical Academy, and in 
1883 he became professor at Saint Petersburg. His works, 
published chiefly in German, include: Die Kolloidentartung 
der Bierstocke (1864) ; Beitrdge zur Chemie der geweb- 
bildenden Substanzen (1873) ; and a treatise on general 
therapeutics in Russian, 5th ed. by G. Schapiro (1892). 

ELLIOTSON, JOHN (1791-1868). Physician; born in London, 
became in 1831 professor in London University, and helped 
to establish University College Hospital. His conversion 
to mesmerism (1837) cost him his professorship in 1838, 
but hardly injured his large practise. He was one of the 
first to use the stethoscope; experimented on the action 
of drugs, encouraged clinical study, and founded the Phreno- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 79 

logical Society. His name will live, from the dedication of 
Thackeray’s Pendennis. 

ELLIOTT, SAMUEL MACKENZIE (1811-73). An American 
physician; born at Inverness, Scotland. He was educated at 
the Royal College of Surgeons in Glasgow. In 1833 he came 
to the United States, and finally established himself in New 
York City, as an oculist. He served in the Civil War as 
lieutenant-colonel of the Highland Guard, and was wounded 
in the first battle of Bull Run. Subsequently he was brevet- 
ted brigadier-general. 

ELSBERG, LOUIS (1836-85). German-American physician; 
born in Gerlohn, Prussia, died in the United States. He 
introduced the art of laryngoscopy in the United States, 
wrote many papers on the throat and its diseases, notably, 
The Throat and the Production of Voice; was the first to 
illustrate the character of undertones and divisions of sound 
in articulation, and invented many instruments which are 
used in surgical treatment of the throat and ear. 

ENGEL, JOSEPH (1816-99). An Austrian zoologist and an¬ 
atomist; born January 29, in Vienna, where he re¬ 
ceived his education. His early investigations in anatomy 
having won him considerable reputation among zoologists, 
he was appointed, in 1844, to a professorship of descriptive 
anatomy in the University of Zurich. Five years later he 
became professor of pathological anatomy in Prague, and in 
1854 professor of descriptive anatomy in Vienna. Import¬ 
ant among his published works are General Pathological 
Anatomy and Special Pathological Anatomy. These works 
place him among the foremost authorities upon the subject 
of which they treat. 

ENGELBRECHT, THEODOR (1813-92). A German physician 
and pomologist; born near Brunswick. In 1862 he induced 
the Government to establish the Pomological Institute, and 
he was the first president in the German Pomological So¬ 
ciety (1880-89). His principal work is Deutschland’s Aepfel- 
sorten (1889). 

ENNEMOSER, JOSEPH (1787-1854). A medico-philosophic 
writer; born at Hintersee, in the Tyrol, November 15. He 
commenced his academic studies at Innsbruck in 1806. On 
the rising of the Tyrolese against the French, in 1809, En- 
nemoser honorably distinguished himself in battle on several 
occasions. In 1816 he took the degree of doctor of medi¬ 
cine, and in 1819 was made professor of medicine at the new 
University of Bonn. In 1841 he went to Munich, where he 
obtained a great reputation by the application of magnetism 
as a curative power. He wrote a number of books, of which 


8o 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


the History of Animal Magnetism is most widely known. 
He died at Egern, Bavaria, September 19. 

ERASISTRATUS (about 300 B. C.). Founder of a school of 
medicine; was born in the island of Ceos, settled in Alex¬ 
andria, and died in Samos. Of his writings only some frag¬ 
ments have been preserved. 

ERDMANN, OTTO LINNE (1804-69). German chemist; born 
in Dresden, April 11; died in Leipsic, October 9. His re^ 
searches embrace a wide range of subjects. He examined 
minutely the technology of nickel, and described some of its 
compounds; analyzed a number of minerals and slags, and 
experimented on several other points of inorganic chemistry. 
In organic chemistry his chief research is upon indigo, in the 
course of which he discovered isatin. The most important 
work in which he engaged was that upon the combining 
weights of several of thfe elements. In company with Mar- 
chand he made determinations of oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, 
sulphur, calcium, copper, mercury, and some others, and his 
numbers have been fully confirmed by subsequent experi¬ 
menters. He was the author of a chemical text-book and 
for many years conducted the Journal fur technische und 
okonomische Chemie, which was afterward changed to the 
Journal fiir praktische Chemie. 

ERICHSEN, SIR JOHN ERIC (1818-96). In 1850, became 
professor of Surgery at Univer^ty College, London, and 
was created a baronet in 1895. 

ERXLEBEN, JOHANN CHRISTIAN (1744-77). A German 
physician and naturalist. He was born at Quedlinburg, and 
was a son of the highly gifted Dorothea Christine Erxleben, 
the first woman who obtained the degree of doctor of medi¬ 
cine in Germany. He was educated at Gottingen, where he 
occupied the chair of natural philosophy from 1771 until his 
death. His principal works are the text-books Anfangs- 
griinde der Naturgeschichte (4th ed. 1791) ; and Anfangs- 
griinde der Naturlehre (8th ed. 1794). 

EUSTACHIO, BARTOLOMMEO (Died 1574). Italian anato¬ 
mist, bom in San Severino, died professor of medicine, in 
Rome. He made important discoveries regarding the ear 
and the heart, to which his name is attached. See his 
Opuscula Anatomica (1564) and Tabulce Anatomicce (1714). 

EUSTIS, WILLIAM (1753-1825). Born at Cambridge, Mass., 
June 10; died at Boston, February 6. An American phy¬ 
sician and politician. He was secretary of war 1809-13, 
and governor of Massachusetts 1823-25. 

EVE PAUL FITZSIMONS (1806-77). An American physi- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


8i 


cian; bom near Augusta, Georgia, June 27. He graduated 
at the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania 
in 1828; studied in London and Paris; served as an ambu¬ 
lance surgeon during the Revolution in 1830, and as a 
regimental surgeon in the Polish War. In 1831 he returned 
to the United States, and in 1832 became professor of sur¬ 
gery in the Medical College of Georgia. In 1849 he was 
elected surgical professor in the University of Louisville; 
in 1850 in the University of Nashville; in 1868 in the Uni¬ 
versity of Missouri, and later returned to Nashville as pro¬ 
fessor of operative and clinical surgery. In 1870 he became 
professor of the principles of surgery in the medical college 
at Nashville, and in 1876 took a prominent part in the Inter¬ 
national Medical College at Philadelphia. During the Civil 
War he served with the Confederate army in Mississippi 
and Georgia. He published several works on surgery, be¬ 
sides contributing extensively to various medical journals. 
He died at Nashville, Tennessee, November 3. 

F 

FABRICIUS, or Fabrizio, GIROLAMO (1537-1619). Anat¬ 
omist; born at Acquapendentente near Orvieto; was from 
1562 professor of anatomy at Padua. Harvey was one of his 
pupils. He discovered the valves of the veins in 1574. His 
Opera Chirurgica (1617) passed through seventeen editions. 

FALCONER, HUGH (1808-65). Palaeontologist; was born at 
Forres, February 29. He graduated M.D. at Edinburgh 
in 1829, joined the Bengal medical service, became (1832) 
keeper of the botanic garden at Saharanpur, and discovered 
many fossils in the Siwalik hills. He made the first experi¬ 
ments in growing tea in India. Back in England for his 
health (1842), he wrote on Indian botany and palaeontology, 
arranged Indian fossils in the British Museum and East 
India House, and prepared his great illustrated folio, Fauna 
Antiqua Sivalensis (1846-49). He returned to India in 1847 
as superintendent of the botanic garden and professor of 
botany at Calcutta, came home in 1855, and died in London, 
July 31. His Palceontological Memoirs and Notes were 
published in 1868. 

FALCONER, WILLIAM (1744-1824). An English physician 
and miscellaneous writer; born at Chester, England, Febru¬ 
ary 23; died at Bath, August 23. In 1770 he began to prac¬ 
tise medicine at Bath, where he was physician to the Bath 
General Hospital 1784-1819. He published Remarks on the 
Influence of Climate,—Nature of Food, and Way of Life 
6 


82 


A BIOGRAPH ICAl* CYCLOPEDIA 


on Mankind (1781), A Dissertation on the Influence of 
Passions upon Disorders of the Body (1788), etc. 

FALLOPIUS, or Fallopio, GABRIELLO (about 1523-62). 
One of the greatest anatomists of his time; a native of 
Modena. He studied medicine at Ferrara, and, after a 
European tour, became teacher of anatomy in that city. He 
thence removed to Pisa, and from Pisa, at the instance of 
Cosmo I., Grand-duke of Tuscany, to Padua, where, besides 
the chairs of anatomy and surgery and of botany, he held 
the office of superintendent of the new botanical garden. 

FARADAY, MICHAEL (1791-1867). Chemist and natural 
philosopher; born, a blacksmith’s son, at Newington Butts 
near London, September 22. At thirteen he was appren¬ 
ticed to a bookbinder, but devoted his leisure to science. 
Chance having procured him admission in 1812 to the 
chemical lectures of Sir Humphrey Davy, the latter engaged 
him as his assistant at the Royal Institution; and with him 
he visited the Continent. On their return Davy confided to 
Faraday the performance of experiments, which led to the 
condensation of gases into liquids by pressure. In 1827 he 
succeeded to Davy’s chair of chemistry in the Royal Insti¬ 
tution; and he was created D.C.L. in 1832. His treatise on 
Chemical Manipulation (1827; 2d ed. 1842) is even now a 
very valuable book of reference. His suggestions as to the 
preparation of the lungs for dicing and the ventilation of 
lighthouse lamps are notable, as are also his letter on table¬ 
turning and his lecture on mental education. The most 
prominent of his publications on physical science were on 
the condensation of the gases, limits of vaporisation, optical 
deceptions, acoustical figures, re-gelation, relation of gold 
and other metals to light, and conservation of force. His 
Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution, though the sub¬ 
jects were often most abstruse, charmed and attracted all 
classes of hearers. Beside his lectures on The Non-metallic 
Elements and on The Chemical History of a Candle, we 
have his profound Physical Forces. But the great work of 
his life is the series of Experimental Researches on Elec¬ 
tricity, published in the Philosophical Transactions during 
forty years and more. The following are almost all dis¬ 
coveries of the first importance: Induced electricity (1831) ; 
the electrotonic state of matter (1831) ; identity of electric¬ 
ity from different sources (1833) ; equivalents in electro¬ 
chemical decomposition (1834); electrostatic induction— 
specific inductive capacity (1838) ; relation of electric and 
magnetic forces (1838) ; the electricity of the Gymnotus 
(1839); hydro-electricity (1843); magnetic rotatory polari- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


83 

sation (1846), effected by means of the optical glass; 
diamagnetism (1846-49) ; relation of gravity to electricity 
(1851); and atmospheric magnetism (1851). Faraday, who 
had received a pension in 1835, was in 1858 given a house 
in Hampton Court. In 1862, as adviser to the Trinity 
House, he advocated the use of magneto-electric light in 
lighthouses. A devout Christian, a member of the body 
called Sandemanians or Glassites, he died at Hampton Court, 
August 25. See Lives by Tyndall (1868; 5th ed. 1894), 
Bence Jones (1870), J. H. Gladstone (1872), and W. Jer- 
rold (1891). 

FARRE, ARTHUR (1811-87). A great London midwifery 
doctor; professor at King’s College 1841-62. 

FAUST, BERNHARD CHRISTOPHER (1755-1842). A Ger¬ 
man physician; born at Rotenburg, Hesse, was educated at 
Gottingen and Rinteln, and in 1788 became physician in 
ordinary at Biickeburg. He was one of the first physicians in 
Germany to adopt vaccination, and published on that sub¬ 
ject: Ueber die Kuhpocken und deren Impfung (1801); 
and Oeffentliche Anstalten, die Bldttern durch Einimpfen 
der Kuhpocken auszurotten (1804). The most important of 
his numerous hygienic works is the Gesundheitskatechismus 
zum Gebrauche in den Schulen und beim hauslichen Unter- 
richt (1794, and frequently republished). Of the three Eng¬ 
lish translations of the work, the latest is entitled A New 
Guide to Health, Compiled from the Catechism of Dr. Faust 
(1832). 

FAUVEL, SULPICE ANTOINE (1813-84). A French physi¬ 
cian. He was born and educated in Paris, and subsequently 
went to Turkey, where he became a member of the Sanitary 
Council at Constantinople (1848). Shortly after his return 
to Paris in 1866, he was appointed inspector-general of the 
Sanitary Department of the French Government. His works 
on the Oriental plague, the cholera, which he had closely 
studied during his long residence in the East, and typhus 
have been extremely valuable, and have had much influence 
on the quarantine regulations of numerous governments. 
His works include: Le cholera, etiologie et prophylaxie 
(1868) ; Rapports sur Vorganisation du service des quaran- 
taines en Turquie (1873) ; Reglement general de police sani¬ 
tate maritime (1876). 

FEHLING, HERMANN (1811-85). German chemist; born in 
Lubeck, Germany; June 9, died July 2. He studied chem¬ 
istry in Heidelberg, at Giessen in Liebig’s laboratory and at 
Paris. He became professor of chemistry in the Polytechnic 
School at Stuttgart, and professor emeritus in 1882. He 


84 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

had great authority in the educational and manufacturing 
circles of his time, as a teacher and prescriber of chemical 
formulae for commercial products, such as sugar, and min¬ 
eral waters. The so-called Fehling’s Solution is famous. 
He wrote Text-book of Organic Chemistry; translated 
Payen’s Precis de Chimie Indistrielle, and edited a new edi¬ 
tion of Glossary of Chemical Terms. 

FERGUSSON, SIR WILLIAM (1808-77). Surgeon; born at 
Prestonpans, March 20. He studied medicine in Edinburgh, 
and in 1836 became a surgeon in the Infirmary. In 1840 he 
went to London to occupy the chair of Surgery in King’s 
College. In 1866 he was made a baronet, in 1867 sergeant- 
surgeon to the Queen, and in 1870 president of the Royal 
College of Surgeons, London. He died February 10. See 
Life by H. Smith (*1877). 

FERNANDEZ MADRID, JOSE (1789-1830). Colombian poet 
and statesman; born in Cartagena, Colombia, February 9; 
died near London, England, June 28. He was for a short 
time president of his country in 1816, but was afterward 
exiled to Cuba, where for nine years he was prominent as a 
physician. In 1825 he was sent by Bolivar, as minister to 
England. He published a volume of poems: The Roses 
(1822); also two tragedies, Atala (1822); and Guatimozin 
(1827). 

FERNEL, JEAN (1497-1558). A Rioted French physician and 
medical writer; professor of medicine at Paris; surnamed 
“the Modern Galen;” born at Clermont-en-Beauvoisis, 
France; died there, April 26. 

FEUCHTERSLEBEN, ERNST von (1806-49). An Austrian 
physician, poet, and philosopher; born at Vienna, April 29; 
died there, September 3. He became dean of the medical 
faculty at Vienna in 1845, and in 1848 was under-secretary 
of state in the ministry of public instruction. His works in¬ 
clude Lehrbuch der drztlichen Seelenkunde (1845), Zur 
Didtetik der Seele (1838), and Gedichte (1836). 

FIGUIER, GUILLAUME LOUIS (1819-94). A French scien¬ 
tific writer; born at Montpellier, February 15. He studied 
chemistry there, and in 1841 received the degree of M.D. 
He was appointed professor at the Montpellier School of 
Pharmacy in 1846, and seven years later removed to Paris 
to occupy a similar post there. He has published Exposition 
et Histoire des Principales Decouvertes Scientifiques 
'Modernes (1851) ; L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes (1854) ; 
Histoire du Merveilleux dans les Temps Modernes (1859- 
60); Les Nouvelles Conquetes de la Science (1883-85) ; Les 
Mysteres de la Science (1887). A number of his popular 




































. 
































































































OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


85 

presentations of science and natural history have been trans¬ 
lated into English. Among these are The Vegetable World; 
The Ocean World; The Wonders of Science; and The 
Wonders of Industry. 

FISCHER, WALDHEIM GOTTHELF von (1771-1853). A 
Russian physician and naturalist; born at Waldheim, 
Saxony. After holding a professorship at Mainz, he accept¬ 
ed a call to Moscow (1803), where he became professor of 
natural history and director of the university museum de¬ 
voted to that branch of science. In 1808 he founded the 
Society of Naturalists at Moscow. He published numerous 
works on comparative anatomy, on the nutrition of plants, 
and on galvanism. One of the most important of these is 
Bibliographia Paloeontologica Animalium Systematica (2d 
ed. 1834). 

FISHER, GEORGE JACKSON (1825-93). American physi¬ 
cian; born in Northcastle, N. Y., November 27. He began 
practise in 1849, and in 1853-54 was physician and surgeon 
to the New York state prison at Sing Sing (Ossining). 
For twenty years he was United States examining surgeon, 
and in 1874 was president of the State Medical Society. He 
wrote many works on anatomy, surgery and medicine, 
among the chief of which are Animal Substances Employed 
as Medicines by the Ancients (1862) ; Teratology (1875) ; 
and History of Surgery (1886). He died in Sing Sing, New 
York, February 3. 

FLINT, AUSTIN (1812-86). American physician; born Octo¬ 
ber 20, in Petersham, Mass. His professional career began in 
1833, upon his graduation from Harvard; he practised in 
Boston, Mass., and then in Buffalo, N. Y. In 1844-45 he was 
a professor at the Rush Medical College, in Chicago, Ill., and 
from 1847, for six years, in the Buffalo Medical College. 
From 1852 to ’56 he was a professor in the Louisville Uni¬ 
versity; in 1856, in the Buffalo Medical College; in 1858, in 
the New Orleans School of Medicine; in 1861, in the Long 
Island College Hospital; and from 1868 until his death was 
professor of the principles and practise of medicine in the 
Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York. He was 
consulting-physician to various hospitals, and from 1872 to 
’85 was president of the New York Academy of Medicine. 
He was a member of many medical and scientific bodies, both 
in America and Europe, and was present at several impor¬ 
tant medical congresses as a delegate. His contributions to 
medical literature were numerous. Among them are Prin¬ 
ciples and Practice of Medicine (1866); Phthisis: Its 
Anatomy, Etc. (1875); Physical Exploration of the Lungs 


86 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


by Auscultation and Percussion (1882); and Medical 
Ethics and Etiquette (1883). He died in New York City, 
March 13. 

FLOURENS, MARIE JEAN PIERRE (1794-1867). Physiol¬ 
ogist; attracted attention by works on the nervous system, 
and, after lecturing for Cuvier in 1828 and 1830, became 
perpetual secretary of the Academy of Sciences (1833), 
professor at the College de France (1855), and member of 
the Academy (1840). He was elected to the Chamber of 
Deputies in 1838, and made a peer of France, in 1846. 
Flourens wrote on the development and nutrition of bones, 
the skin and mucous membranes, the longevity of man, and 
animal instinct, besides a series of Eloges Historiques 
(1856-62).—His son, Gustave (1838-71), distinguished him¬ 
self by his book, La Science de VHomme (1865), as an 
ardent republican he took part in the Cretan insurrection 
against the Turks (1866), and fell fighting for the Paris 
Commune. 

FLOWER, SIR WILLIAM HENRY (1831-99). Zoologist; born 
at Stratford-on-Avon; served as assistant-surgeon in 
the Crimea, and became demonstrator of anatomy at the 
Middlesex Hospital. He was appointed in 1861 conservator 
of the Hunterian Museum; in 1869 Hunterian professor of 
comparative anatomy and physiology, and in 1884 natural 
history director at the British Museum. He has written on 
anatomy, zoology, anthropology, the osteology of mammalia, 
etc. In 1892 he was created a K.C.B. 

FLUCKIGER, FRIEDRICH AUGUST (1828-94). German 
pharmacognosticist; born in Langenthal, Switzerland. He 
was educated at Berlin, Bonn, Geneva, and Heidelberg, be¬ 
came president of the Swiss Association of Apothecaries in 
1857, and in 1881 was member of the committee appointed to 
revise the pharmacopoeia of the German empire. He wrote, 
in conjunction with Hamburg, Pharmacography : A History 
of the Principal Drugs of Vegetable Origin met with in 
Great Britain, and British India (1879), and other works in 
German and French on the nature and history of drugs. 

FLUDD, ROBERT (1574-1637). Physician and mystic; born 
at Milgate House, near Maidstone; studied at Oxford, 
traveled on the Continent, there studied Paracelsus, and set¬ 
tled as a physician at London. Fludd wrote sixteen works 
defending Rosicrucianism and expounding a pantheistic 
theosophy of his own. 

FLOYER, SIR JOHN (1649-1734). Physician and author; 
born at Hinters, in Staffordshire, and was educated at Ox¬ 
ford. He practised in Lichfield, and it was by his advice 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


87 

that Doctor Johnson, when a child, was taken by his mother 
to be touched by Queen Anne for the king’s evil, March 30, 
1714. Doctor Johnson had a high opinion of his learning 
and piety. Floyer died February 1. 

FORBES, SIR JOHN (1787-1861). Physician; born at Cuttle- 
brae, Banffshire, studied at Aberdeen and Edinburgh; in 
1807 became a naval surgeon; and after practising at Penz¬ 
ance and Chichester from 1840 made a large practise in 
London. He was knighted in 1853. Joint-editor of the 
Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine (1832-35); in 1836 he 
founded the British and Foreign Medical Review . He pro¬ 
moted the use of the stethoscope and greatly developed 
physical diagnosis. 

FOSTER, ISAAC (1740-81). An American physician and 
surgeon; born in Charlestown, Mass. He graduated at 
Harvard in 1758, studied medicine in Paris and London, 
and returned to practise at Charlestown. He was a dele¬ 
gate to the first Provincial Congress of Massachusetts in 
October, 1774, and on the outbreak of the Revolution he 
gave up his large practise and joined the Continental Army 
as a volunteer surgeon. In the fall of 1775 he was appointed 
by Washington acting director-general of the military hos¬ 
pital service of the American forces. He remained in the 
service after the appointment of Dr. John Morgan, to that 
position by Congress; was personally attached to Washing¬ 
ton’s headquarters, and in 1777, was surgeon-in-chief of 
the Eastern Department of the Continental armies. He 
resigned in 1780 on account of failing health. 

FOURCROY, ANTOINE FRANQOIS DE (1755-1809). French 
chemist; born in Paris, June 15; died December 16. Having 
adopted the profession of medicine he applied himself close¬ 
ly to the study of the sciences connected with it, especially 
to chemistry, and published in 1776 a translation of Ramaz- 
zini’s Treatise on the Diseases of Artisans. He was profes¬ 
sor of chemistry at the Jardin du Roi, 1780-1805. He 
organized the central school of public works, out of which 
the polytechnic school afterward sprang, and co-operated in 
the establishment of the normal schools. In 1799 Bonaparte 
gave him a place in the council of state, in which place he 
drew up a plan for a system of public instruction, which, 
with some alterations, was adopted. His works are numer¬ 
ous, among which the following are the most important: 
Legons Elementaires d’Histoire naturelle et de Chimie 
(1791); Systeme des Connaissances chimiques, et de leurs 
Applications aux Phenomenes de la Nature et de VArt 
(1805) ; Philosophic chemique; Tableaux synoptiques de 


88 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


Chimie (1805); and La Medecine eclairee par les Sciences 
physiques. 

FRACASTORO, GIROLAMO (1483-1553). Physician and poet; 
born at Verona; professor of Logic at Padua, practised suc¬ 
cessfully as a physician, but ultimately abandoned medicine 
for letters. His best known work is a Latin poem on 
syphilidis (1530; Lond. 1720) ; he also published a discourse 
on sympathy and antipathy. 

FRANCIS, JOHN WAKEFIELD (1789-1861). An American 
physician and medical writer; born in New York City, 
November 17; apprenticed to a printer; graduated at Colum¬ 
bia College in 1809; graduated in medicine at the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons in 1811; was associated with Dr. 
Hosack in editing the American Medical and Philosophical 
Register, a quarterly which had an existence of four years. 
He was professor of materia medica in the College of Phy¬ 
sicians and Surgeons; then in Columbia College; and 
continued professor when these two institutions were united. 
In 1816 he went to Europe. On his return he resumed his 
professional duties at Columbia and then at Rutgers College, 
an institution formed by the professors of Columbia, who 
had resigned in a body. Rutgers College was continued 
until 1830, when it was closed by the legislature. His 
services were much sought after in all medical, literary and 
typographical societies. His published works include a wide 
range of subjects. Among them are Notice of Thomas 
Eddy; The Anatomy of Drunkenness; and Old New York; 
or, Reminiscences of the Past Sixty Years (1857, enlarged 
with a memoir, 1855). He died in New York City, Febru¬ 
ary 8. 

FRANK, JOHANN PETER (1745-1821). A German physi¬ 
cian; noted especially for his contributions to sanitary 
science; born at Rothalben, Baden, March 19; died at 
Vienna, April 24. He became professor at Gottingen in 1784, 
at Pavia in 1785, and at Wilna in 1804, and was physician 
to the Emperor Alexander of Russia, 1805-08. He wrote 
System einer vollstdndigen medizinischen Polizei (1784- 
1827), De curandis hominum morbis (1792-1800), etc. 

FRANK, JOSEPH (1771-1842). A German physician; son of 
J. P. Frank; a supporter of the Brownian system; born at 
Rastatt, Baden, December 23; died at Como, Italy, December 
18. He published Grundriss der Pathologie (1803), etc. 

FREIND, JOHN (1675-1728). English physician; bom at 
Croton, in Northamptonshire. In 1722 he entered parlia¬ 
ment as member for Launceston, in Cornwall; but, being 
suspected of favoring the cause of the exiled Stuarts, he 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


89 

spent half of that year in the Tower. During his imprison¬ 
ment he conceived the plan of his most important and valu¬ 
able work. The History of Physic, of which the first part 
appeared in 1725, and the second in the following year. In 
the latter year he was appointed physician to Queen Caro¬ 
line, an office which he held till his death, July 26. 

FREMY, EDMOND (1814-94). A French chemist; born in 
Versailles. He became professor of chemistry at the Poly¬ 
technic School, Paris, in 1846. In 1864 he founded, with 
Chevreul, a free laboratory at the Museum of Natural 
Sciences, of which institution he became director in 1879. 
His researches extended to almost every branch of chem¬ 
istry. In addition to numerous treatises in the Annales de 
Chimie et de Physique , he published Trait e de chimie 
generate (7 vols., 3d ed. 1862-65). The Encyclopedie Chim- 
ique, a work in 10 vols., upon which he was engaged for 
thirteen years, was prepared by him in colaboration with 
several distinguished scientists, and was completed in 1894. 

FRERICHS, FRIEDRICH THEODOR von (1819-85). Ger¬ 
man physician; born at Aurich, and educated at Gottingen 
and Berlin. After holding a professorship at Kiel and con¬ 
ducting the clinical institute and hospital in that city, he 
was for eight years professor of pathology and therapy at 
Breslau (1851-59), whence he was called to Berlin in 1859, 
where he became permanently established. He was con¬ 
sidered one of the leading medical authorities in the Ger¬ 
man capital, and as physician on the general medical staff 
of the Prussian Army, rendered particularly valuable ser¬ 
vices during the Franco-Prussian War. His principal work 
is the Klinik der Leiberkrankheiten (2d ed., 1861) ; English 
translation, i860, under the title A Clinical Treatise on the 
Diseases of the Liver; (also translated into French and 
Italian). 

FREY, HEINRICH (1822-1890). German anatomist and zo¬ 
ologist; born in Frankfort-on-the-Main, June 15; died at 
Zurich January 17. He began his studies at Bonn in 1840, 
and continued them up to 1845 at Berlin and Gottingen, 
when he took the degree of Doctor in Medicine and at the 
last named university became assistant professor of physi¬ 
ology. In 1848 he was appointed professor of histology and 
comparative anatomy at Zurich. He was considered one of 
the finest microlepidopterologists of Germany. The range 
of his published works is wide. He wrote a Text-book of 
Zootomy (1847) ; An Introduction to the Study of Inverte¬ 
brates (1847); several works on histology, a book on the 


90 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


microscope, and an elaborate account of the lepidoptera of 
Switzerland. 

FRIEDEL, CHARLES (1832-99). French chemist; bom at 
Strasburg. He studied under Pasteur in his native town 
and continued his scientific education at Paris, entering the 
laboratory of Wurtz. In 1869 he was graduated with two 
remarkable theses, and in 1876 became professor of miner¬ 
alogy in the Sorbonne. He eventually succeeded Wurtz 
(1884), as professor of organic chemistry and director of 
the research laboratory in the Sorbonne, a position he main¬ 
tained till his death. His researches are recorded by him in 
254 original memoirs and entitle him to a place among the 
foremost scientific men of the Nineteenth century. His 
name is especially connected in association with James 
Mason Crafts with the synthetic method known as the 
“Friedel and Crafts reaction.” * He published, in addition 
to text-books on mineralogy and crystalography, Cours de 
Chimie Organique Professe a la Faculte des Sciences de 
Paris (1887). 

FRIEDREICH, NIKOLAUS (1825-82). A German physician; 
born at Wurzburg, and educated in that city and at Heidel¬ 
berg. In 1857 he was appointed professor of pathology in 
the University of Wurzburg, and director of the Anatom¬ 
ical Institute. From 1858 until his death he held the 
chair of pathology and therapeutics at Heidelberg, and was 
clinical director there. In addition to Die Krankheiten der 
Nasenhohlen, des Larynx und der Trachea, in Virchow’s 
Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie (1854), he published a 
valuable work on cardiac diseases, entitled Die Krankheiten 
des Herzens (2d ed., 1867). 

FRORIEP, ROBERT (1804-61). A German physician; born 
at Jena, and educated at Bonn. In 1833 be received a call 
to the Pathological Museum of the Charite at Berlin, of 
which he was director for nearly thirteen years. His medi¬ 
cal and surgical atlases are widely known. They include: 
Chirurgische Kupfertafeln (96 parts, 1820-47); Klinische 
Kupfertafeln (12 parts, 1828-37) ; Atlas der Hautkrankheiten 
(1837) ; Pferderassen (6th ed., 1874) ; and Atlas Anatomicus 
(6th ed., 1877). His treatise On the Therapeutic Application 
of Electro-Magnetism in the Treatment of Rheumatic and 
Paralytic Affections (English translation by R. M. Law¬ 
rence, 1850) was a very important contribution in its day to 
electro-therapy. 

FUCHS, KONRAD HEINRICH (1803-55). A German physi¬ 
cian; born at Bamberg, Bavaria, December 7 ; v died at 
Gottingen, Prussia, December 2. Professor of pathology 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


91 


at Gottingen 1838-55. He wrote Die krankhaften Verdnder- 
ungen der Haut (1840-41); Lehrbuch der speziellen Nos- 
ologie und Therapie (1845-48), etc. 

FUCHS, LEONHARD (1501-1566). A German physician and 
botanist; author of De historia stirpium (1542), etc.; born 
at Wembdingen, Bavaria, January 17; died at Tubingen, 
Wiirtemberg, May 10. 


G 

GADOLIN, JOHN (1760-1852). Finnish chemist; born in 
Abo, Finland, June 5; died in Wirmo, Finland, August 15. 
He studied chemistry under Bergman and in 1797 was ap¬ 
pointed professor of chemistry in Abo—an office which he 
held till 1822. He devoted himself to investigations on 
mineral and metallurgic subjects. But the research for 
which he is especially remembered was upon a black min¬ 
eral found in the porcelain feldspar quarry at Ytterby, near 
Stockholm, by Arhenius, of which an account had been pub¬ 
lished in 1788. In 1794 he read a paper upon it, to the 
Academy of Sciences and showed that it contained a new 
kind of earth. This discovery was subsequently confirmed by 
Ekeberg, who called the earth yttria f and the mineral Gado- 
linite, after its first investigator. The yttria was afterward 
shown to be a mixture of several earths. 

GAILLARD, EDWIN SAMUEL (1827-85). American physi¬ 
cian; born in Charleston, S. C., graduated at the University 
of South Carolina in 1845, and at the State Medical College 
in 1854. During the Civil War he served in the Confederate 
Army, holding various positions in the medical department, 
and subsequently was editor, successively, of the Richmond 
and Louisville Medical Journal and of the American Med¬ 
ical Weekly. 

GAIRDNER, WILLIAM (1793-1867). A Scotch physician; 
born at Mount Charles, Ayrshire, graduated at the University 
of Edinburgh in 1813, and in 1822 settled in London, where 
he practised his profession almost continuously, until his 
death. He published an Essay on the Effects of Iodine on 
the Human Constitution (1834), and an excellent treatise 
On Gout; Its History, Its Causes, and Its Cure (1849). 

GALEN, or CLAUDIUS GALENUS (about 130-201). Greek 
physician; born at Pergamus in Mysia, and studied medi¬ 
cine there and at Smyrna, Corinth, and Alexandria. After 
164 he spent four years in Rome, and in 170 was recalled 
thither by the Emperor M. Aurelius. He afterwards at¬ 
tended Commodus, Sextus, and Severus. He is supposed 


92 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


to have died in Sicily. Galen was a voluminous writer on 
medical and philosophical subjects. The works extant 
over his name consist of 83 genuine treatises; 19 doubtfully 
genuine; 45 undoubtedly spurious; 19 fragments; and 15 
commentaries on Hippocrates. He was a careful dissector 
(of animals), a somewhat too theoretical physiologist, and 
so gathered up all the medical knowledge of his time as to 
become the authority from whom the subsequent Greek and 
Roman medical writers were mere compilers. He was the 
first to diagnose by the pulse. See edition by Kuhn (20 
vols. 1821-33), that of the smaller works by Marquardt 
(1884-94); the French translation by Daremberg (1857); 
and Coxe’s epitome (Phila. 1846). 

GALL, FRANZ JOSEPH (1758-1828). The founder of phrenol¬ 
ogy; born at Tiefenbronn near Pforzheim, March 9, 
and settled in Vienna in 1785 as a physician. In 1796 he 
began to lecture on phrenology; but the course was pro¬ 
hibited in 1802 as subversive of religion. With Spurzheim 
he next lectured through Germany, Holland, Sweden, and 
Switzerland, and reached the height of his fame when in 
1807 he settled as a physician in Paris. In 1808 he and 
Spurzheim presented to the French Institute a memoir 
of their discoveries, on which a committee reported un¬ 
favorably. Thereupon Gall and Spurzheim published their 
Introduction au Cours de Physiologie du Cerveau, followed 
by Recherches sur le Systeme Nerveux (1809), and by Ana- 
tomie et Physiologie du Systeme Nerveux (1810-19). Gall 
died at Montrouge near Paris, August 22d. 

GALVANI, LUIGI (1737-98). Owes his celebrity to his dis¬ 
coveries in animal electricity, expounded in De viribus Blec- 
tricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius (1791). His 
works were published by the Academy of Sciences of 
Bologna (1841-42). He was born at Bologna, studied there, 
and in 1762 became professor of Anatomy. 

GANNAL, JEAN NICOLAS (1791-1852). A distinguished 
French technical chemist; born at Sarre-Louis, July 23. He 
was the first to introduce into printing the use of elastic 
rollers, which he formed by a mixture of gelatine and sugar; 
and his process for the melting of tallow, and hardening it 
with acids, prepared the way for the manufacture of wax- 
candles. In 1823 he took out a patent for the making of glue 
and gelatine. He obtained one of the Monthyon prizes of the 
Institute in 1827 for the employment of chlorine in the 
treatment of catarrh and phthisis, and again, in 1835, for 
his discovery of the efficacy of the injections of solutions 
of acetate and chloride of aluminium in preserving anatom- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


93 


ical preparations. Turning his attention next to embalming, 
he showed that it could be accomplished without mutilation 
of the body, and with greater economy than after the old 
methods, by injecting into one of the carotid arteries solu¬ 
tions of aluminium salts. Gannal died at Paris. 

GARDEN, ALEXANDER (1730-91). Scottish scientist; born 
in Charleston, S. C., died in London, April 15. He was 
graduated from Aberdeen; became a professor in King’s 
College, New York (now Columbia University), and in 
1755 established himself in medical practise at Charleston. 
From 1783 he was in London, where he became vice-presi¬ 
dent of the Royal Society. The botanical genus Gardenia 
was named in his honor by Linnaeus. He wrote various 
papers on topics of botany and zoology. 

GARDINER, SYLVESTER (1707-86). An American physi¬ 
cian; born in South Kingston, R. I., studied medicine in 
Paris and London, and began practise in Boston. He was 
instrumental in colonizing that part of the “Plymouth Pur¬ 
chase” lying along the Kennebec river, and in settling the 
town of Pittston, Maine, from which the present city of 
Gardiner, named in his honor, was subsequently set off. He 
established a church and library there, and was one of the 
founders of King’s Chapel, in Boston. On the outbreak of 
the Revolutionary War he joined the Loyalist element in 
Boston, and in 1776 removed to Halifax, N. S., whence he 
subsequently removed to England, his name having mean¬ 
while been included in the proscription and banishment act 
of 1778. In 1785 he returned to this country, and settled at 
Newport, where he died. 

GARTH, SIR SAMUEL (1661-1719). Physician and poet; 
born at Bowland Forest, Yorkshire, studied at Peterhouse, 
Cambridge, and Leyden, graduated M.D. in 1691, and next 
year settled in London. In 1700 he did himself everlasting 
honor by providing burial in Westminister Abbey for the 
neglected Dryden. He was knighted by George I and ap¬ 
pointed physician in ordinary, and physician-general to the 
army. He died January 18. He wrote The Dispensary 
(1699), a satire on the apothecaries and physicians who op¬ 
posed giving medicine gratuitously to the sick poor, and 
Claremont (1715), a topographical poem. 

GATLING, RICHARD JORDAN (1818-1903). Born in Hert¬ 
ford county, N. C., September 12; studied medicine but 
never practised, and is known for various inventions, espe¬ 
cially the Gatling gun (1861-62), a revolving battery gun, 
with ten parallel barrels, firing 1,200 shots a minute. 

GAY-LUSSAC, JOSEPH LOUIS (1778-1850). Chemist and 


94 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


physicist; was born December 6, at St. Leonard in Haute 
Vienne. From the Polytechnic School he passed in 1801 to 
the department of Ponts et Chaussees, and began a series 
of researches on vapor, temperature, and terrestrial magne¬ 
tism. In 1808 he made the important discovery of the law 
of volumes; in 1809 became professor of chemistry at the 
Polytechnic, and from 1832 in the Jardin des Plantes. He 
was the first to form synthetically the hydriodic and iodic 
acids; and in 1815 he succeeded in isolating cyanogen. His 
investigations on sulphuric acid, the manufacture of the 
bleaching chlorides, the centesimal alcoholometer, and the 
assaying of silver are also important. In 1818 he became 
superintendent of the government manufactory of gun¬ 
powder, and in 1829 chief assayer to the mint. In 1839 
he was made a peer of France. He died May 9. His works 
include VAnalyse de l’Air Atmospherique (1804), Cours de 
Physique (1827), and Legons de Chimie (1828). 

GEBER (? -776). Probably identical with Abu Musa 
Jabir ben Haijan. An Arabian alchemist. He occupies a 
position in the history of chemistry analogous to that held 
by Hippocrates in that of medicine. The theory that the 
metals are composed of the same elements, and that by 
proper treatment the base metals can be developed into the 
noble, which was the leading theory in chemistry down to 
the 16th century, is clearly defined in his writings. The 
titles of 500 works reputed to be from his pen are known, 
of which the following have appeared in print: Summa 
perfectionis, Liber investigations, or De investigatione per¬ 
fections, De inventione veritatis, Liber Fornacum, and 
Testamentum. 

GEISSLER, HEINRICH (1814-79). Inventor of chemical ap¬ 
paratus; settled at Bonn, Prussia, in 1854. 

GEITNER, ERNST AUGUST (1783-1852). A German chem¬ 
ist, born at Gera. After conducting a chemical factory at 
Lossnitz, he founded another at Schneeberg, in 1815, which 
he conducted until his death. He was eminent as a chemical 
investigator, and was the discoverer of the alloy argentan, 
or German silver. He also devoted considerable attention 
to the chemistry of dyeing, and was the first to utilize 
chromic salts for animal and vegetable dyes. He published: 
Briefe iiber die Chemie; Die Familie West, oder Unter- 
haltungen iiber Chemie und Technologie; and several im¬ 
portant writings on the scientific preparation of grape-sugar 
and grape-syrup from potato-flour. 

GENTH, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS (1820-93)* An American 
analytical chemist and mineralogist; born at Wachtersbach, 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


95 


Hesse. He was educated at Heidelberg, at Giessen under 
Liebig, and at Marburg under Gerling in physics, and in 
chemistry under Bunsen, whose assistant he was from 1845 
to 1848, when he went to Philadelphia and set up an an¬ 
alytical laboratory. In 1872 he was appointed to the chair 
of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, but resigned 
in 1888, and again opened his laboratory. He established 
twenty-three new minerals; wrote one hundred and two 
articles, mostly on chemistry and mineralogy; and was best 
known for his Researches on the Ammonia-Cohalt Bases, 
with Wolcott Gibbs (1856) ; for his studies of “Corundum” 
(in American Philosophical Society Proceedings, 1873); 
for his reports, as chemist and mineralogist to the Geolog¬ 
ical Survey of Pennsylvania, on the mineralogy of the State; 
and for his analyses for the State Board of Agriculture. 
He was a member of the American Philosophical Society 
(1854-93), one of the founders of the American Chemical 
Society, and its president in 1880, a member of the National 
Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the Boston Academy 
of Arts and Sciences. 

GERHARDT, KARL FRIEDERICK (1816-56). Chemist; bom 
at Strasburg, studied chemistry at Leipzig and Giessen, and 
in 1838 settled in Paris. Between 1849 and 1855 he pub¬ 
lished his views of series and the theory of types with 
which his name is associated. In 1855 he became professor 
of Chemistry at Strasburg. All his ideas and his dis¬ 
coveries are embodied in his Traite de Chimie Organique 

(1853-56). 

GIBBONS, WILLIAM (1781-1845). An American physician 
and writer; born in Philadelphia, Pa., August 10; father of 
James Sloan Gibbons. He graduated at the University of 
Pennsylvania in 1805, and practised in Wilmington, Dela¬ 
ware, until his death. He was a “Friend,” and devoted 
much of his time to the interests of the society. He pub¬ 
lished Exposition of Modern Scepticism, a pamphlet, and 
several articles, under the name “Vindex.” He died in 
Wilmington, Del., July 25. 

GIBSON, WILLIAM (1788-1868). An American surgeon; 
born in Baltimore, Md. After graduating at Princeton in 
1806, he studied in Scotland, at the University of Edin¬ 
burgh. He practised his profession in Baltimore until 
seventy years of age, when he retired to Newport, R. I. He 
was professor of surgery in the University of Pennsylvania 
from 1819 to 1849. He published Principles and Practice of 
Surgery (1824); Rambles in Europe (1839); and Eminent 


g6 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

Belgian Surgeons and Physicians (1841). He died in 
Savannah, Georgia, March 2. 

GILBERT, RUFUS HENRY (1832-1885). American inventor; 
born at Guilford, N. Y., January 26; died in New York, 
July 10. He was graduated at the New York College of 
Physicians and Surgeons; served as surgeon in the Union 
army in the Civil War; and was appointed superintendent 
and medical director of the United States army hospitals. 
Owing to failure of his health after the war, he abandoned 
his profession and engaged in the railroad business, making 
a special study of the needs of rapid transit in New York. 
The result was the erection of the first elevated railroad in 
that city, the motive power being an endless wire cable. 
From this beginning the elevated system of to-day was grad¬ 
ually developed. 

GILBERT, WILLIAM (1540*1603). Born at Colchester; was 
elected in 1561 a fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, 
and in 1573 settled in London as a physician, becoming 
court physician to Elizabeth, and president of the College of 
Physicians. His leisure was given to magnetism and chem¬ 
istry. In his De Magnete (1600) he established the mag¬ 
netic nature of the earth; and he conjectured that terrestrial 
magnetism and electricity were two allied emanations of 
a single force. He was the first to use the terms “electric¬ 
ity,” “electric force,” and “electric attraction,” and to 
point out that amber is not the only substance which when 
rubbed attracts light objects; and he describes how to meas¬ 
ure the excited electricity by means of an iron needle mov¬ 
ing freely on a point. He also invented instruments for 
finding latitude. His De Mundo nostro Philosophia Nova 
was published in 1651. See Memoir prefixed to P. Fleury 
Mottelay’s translation of the De Magnete (1893). 

GILCHRIST, JOHN BORTHWICK (1759-1841). An East 
India Company surgeon, an early student and teacher of 
Hindustani, was born at Edinburgh; lived at Calcutta, 1783- 
1804; and died in Paris. 

GILMAN, CHANDLER ROBBINS (1802-65). An American 
physician. He was born in Marietta, Ohio, graduated at 
the University of Pennsylvania in 1824, and from 1841 
until his death was professor of obstetrics and diseases of 
women and children in the College of Physicians and Sur¬ 
geons, where, after 1851, he also filled the chair of medical 
jurisprudence. He published: Life on the Lakes (1835); 
Sketch of the Life and Character of Dr. J. B. Beck (1851) ; 
and The Relations of the Medical to the Legal Profession 
(1856). 


OF MEDICAL, HISTORY 


97 


GLAUBER, JOHANN RUDOLPH (about 1603-68). Alchemist 
and physician; born at Karlstadt in Franconia, died in Am¬ 
sterdam. In 1648 he discovered hydrochloric acid; he was 
probably the first to procure nitric acid; and his name lives 
in Glauber’s Salt, a neutral sulphate of soda discovered by 
him. His treatises were translated by Christopher Packe 
(1689). 

GLISSON, FRANCIS (1597-1677). An English physiologist, 
born at Rampisham, Dorsetshire, and educated at Cam¬ 
bridge and Oxford. He became professor of physics at 
the former university in 1636, and retained that position 
until his death. In 1639 he also received an appointment 
as lecturer on anatomy in all its branches at the College 
of Physicians, London, in which he was president from 
1667 to 1669. He was one of the founders of the Royal 
Society, and was distinguished alike as an investigator, 
lecturer, and author. Especially noteworthy were his in¬ 
vestigations on the morbid anatomy of rickets, as treated 
in his famous work entitled De Rachitide sive morbo puerili 
qui vulgo The Rickets dicitur, Tractatus (1650), frequently 
reprinted and translated into English. His work on the 
liver and its diseases, entitled Anatomia Hcpatis (1654), 
is also important, the term “Glisson’s capsule,” now a part 
of medical phraseology, perpetuating the name of its author. 

GMELIN, JOHANN GEORG (1709-55). Professor of chem¬ 
istry and botany at St. Petersburg and Tubingen, in 1733- 
43 he travelled in Siberia, and wrote Flora Sibirica (1748- 
49), and Reisen durch Sibirien (1751-52). His nephew, 
Samuel Gottlieb (1744-74), became professor of Botany at 
St. Petersburg (1767), and wrote Historia Fucorum (1768). 
Another nephew, Johann Friedrich (1748-1804), wrote 
Onomatologia Botanica (1771-77). 

GMELIN, LEOPOLD (1788-1853). Born at Gottingen, from 
1817 to 1850 was professor of Medicine and Chemistry at 
Heidelberg. His greatest work is his Handbuch der Chemie 
(1817-19; English translation by Watts, enlarged 1848-49). 

GODMAN, JOHN D. (1794-1830). American naturalist and 
medical writer; born at Annapolis, Md., died in German¬ 
town, Pa., April 17. In 1813 he entered as a sailor in the 
flotilla then stationed in Chesapeake Bay, but- in 1815 left 
the service, and commenced the study of medicine. After 
lecturing for some time at Baltimore in the room of the 
professor of anatomy in the University of Maryland, and 
holding a chair of anatomy for a short time at Cincinnati, 
he settled in Philadelphia as a physician and private teacher 
of anatomy. His chief work is his American Natural His - 
7 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


98 

tory (1828). He also wrote: Anatomical Investigations; Ac¬ 
count of some Irregularities of Structure and Morbid Ana¬ 
tomy; Rambles of a Naturalist; etc. 

GOERCKE, JOHANN (1750-1822). A German physician; 
born at Sorquitten, East Prussia. He entered the Prus¬ 
sian Army as a surgeon at the age of seventeen, and in 
1789 was appointed one of the three chief surgeons in the 
army. Meanwhile he had travelled extensively in Austria, 
Italy, France, and in England, where he entered into 
friendly relations with John and William Hunter, Bell, 
Cooper, Hamilton, and other equally celebrated surgeons. 
In 1797 he was appointed chief surgeon to the Prussian 
Army, in which capacity he rendered invaluable services 
during the various campaigns terminating with the battle 
of Waterloo. He founded several educational institutions 
for military surgeons, the most important of which was 
the celebrated Pepiniere, afterwards known as the Medi- 
cinisch-Chirurgisches Friedrich-Wilhelms Instutut. His 
literary works include: Pharmacopoeia Castrensis Borussica 
1805) ; and Beschreibung der bei der koniglich-preussischen 
Armee Stattfindenden Krankentransportmittel (1814). 

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827). Born at Epping, studied 
medicine in London, and from 1793 combined the practise 
of medicine with the most miscellaneous literary activity. 
His writings embrace poems, translations of Job, the Song 
of Songs, and Lucretius, essays on poisons, and history 
of medicine. He helped Dr. Olinthus Gregory to produce 
an encyclopaedia (1813). 

GOODSIR, JOHN (1814-67). Anatomist; born at Anstru- 
ther, studied at St. Andrews, and was apprenticed to a den¬ 
tist in Edinburgh, attending the medical classes there the 
while. In 1846 he became professor of Anatomy at Edin¬ 
burgh. See Memoir by Prof. Turner (1868). 

GORUP-BESANEZ, BARON EUGEN (1817-78). A German 
chemist; born at Gratz, and educated in that city and at 
Vienna, Padua, Munich, and Gottengen. He was appointed 
professor of chemistry at Erlangen in 1849. His researches 
on zoochemical analysis are important; and his work en¬ 
titled Anleitung zur qualitativen und quantitativen zoochem- 
ischen Analyse (3d ed. 1871) is very valuable. His prin¬ 
cipal publication is the Lehrbuch der Chemie (vol. i., 7th 
ed. 1885; vol. ii., 6th ed. 1881; vol. iii., 4th ed. 1878), which 
has been translated into French and several other lan¬ 
guages. 

GOULD, AUGUSTUS ADDISON (1805-66). American con? 
chologist; was born at New Ipswich, N. H., April 23, 


0 F MEDICAL HISTORY 


99 


graduated at Harvard College in 1825, and took his degree 
of doctor of medicine in 1830. Establishing himself in 
Boston, he devoted himself to the practise of medicine, 
and finally rose to high professional rank and social posi¬ 
tion. He became president of the Massachusetts Medical 
Society, and was employed as an authority in editing the 
vital statistics of the State. As a conchologist his reputa¬ 
tion is world-wide. He was a pioneer of the science in 
America. His writings fill many pages of the publications 
of the Boston Society of Natural History and other period¬ 
icals. The two most important monuments to his scientific 
work, however, are The Mollusks and Shells of the United 
States exploring expedition under Commodore Wilkes, pub¬ 
lished by the government, and the Report on the Inverte- 
brata, published in 1841. The author’s death took place at 
Boston, September 18. 

GRAAF, REGNIER DE (1641-73). Dutch physician and 
anatomist; born at Schoonhoven, and practised at Delft. 
In 1663 he wrote a famous treatise on the pancreatic juice, 
in 1672 discovered the Graafian vesicles of the female 
ovum. 

GRAEFE, ALFRED KARL (1830-99). A German physician; 
cousin of Albrecht von Graefe. He was born at Martins- 
kirchen, studied medicine in various German universities 
and in Paris, acted as an assistant to Albrecht von Graefe 
in Berlin from 1854 to 1858, and afterwards was professor 
of diseases of the eye at Halle, which position, however, 
he resigned in 1892. He founded at Halle an ophthalmic 
hospital which attracted many thousands of patients, and 
devised a method of operating whereby, without injury to 
the eye, parasites deeply lodged in that organ could be 
removed. He wrote a number of papers on ophthalmology, 
and published, in conjunction with Samisch, Handbuch der 
gesammten Augenheilkunde (1874-80). 

GRAFE, CARL FERDINAND von (1787-1840). German 
surgeon; was born at Warsaw March 8. He studied medi¬ 
cine at Halle and Leipsic, and after obtaining license from 
the latter university, he was in 1807 appointed private phy¬ 
sician to Duke Alexius of Anhalt-Bernburg. In 1811 he 
became professor of surgery at Berlin, and during the war 
with Napoleon he was superintendent of the military hos¬ 
pitals. When peace was concluded in 1815, he resumed his 
professional duties. He was also appointed to the medical 
staff of the army, and he became a director of the Fred- 
erick-William Institute, and of the Medico-Chirurgical 
Academy. He died suddenly, July 4, at Hanover, whither 


100 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


he had been called to operate on the eyes of the crown 
prince. 

GRAHAM, THOMAS (1805-69). Scottish chemist; born at 
Glasgow, Dec. 21; died in London, Sept. 16. He was edu¬ 
cated at the University of Glasgow, and in 1828 communi¬ 
cated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh the results of ex¬ 
periments on the absorption of vapors by liquids. In 1831 
he laid before the Royal Society of Edinburgh the result 
of a series of experiments on ten different gases, from 
which he arrived at the conclusion that gases tend to dif¬ 
fuse inversely as the square root of their specific gravities, 
a conclusion which has been received as the law of the 
diffusion of gases. In 1837 he was elected professor of 
chemistry in the University of London, and soon after¬ 
ward was appointed assayer to the mint. In 1840 he re¬ 
ceived the gold medal of the Royal Society, and the next 
year was chosen first president of the Chemical Society, 
which he had assisted in founding. He now began to be 
employed as consulting chemist in various mercantile and 
public undertakings, and it was by his recommendation 
that wood-spirit, or methylic alcohol, was used to render 
spirits sold free of duty for trade or scientific purposes 
unfit for consumption as a beverage. In 1846 he assisted 
in founding the Cavendish Society, of which he was elected 
president, an office he retained till the close of his life. 
At the same time he was engaged in investigations on the 
diffusion of liquids, and was the earliest to fully develop 
that theory. He made many other important discoveries, 
and was the author of Elements of Chemistry (1837) and 
various professional papers. 

GRAINGER, JAMES (about 1721-66). Physician and poet¬ 
aster; was born at Duns, and in 1759 married and settled in 
St. Kitts, West Indies. 

GRAVES, ROBERT JAMES (1796-1853). Physician, took 
his M.B. at Dublin in 1818, and after three years of study 
and travel in Edinburgh and on the Continent settled 
(1821) in Dublin, and in 1827 became professor in the Col¬ 
lege of Physicians, of which he was president in 1843-44. 
He was elected F.R.S. in 1849. He published A System of 
Clinical Medicine (1843) and Clinical Lectures (1848). 
See Life by Stokes, prefixed to Studies in Physiology and 
Medicine (1863). 

GRAY, ASA (1810-88). Born at Paris, N. Y., November 
18, took his M.D. in 1831, but relinquished medicine for 
botany, and in 1842-73 was professor of Natural History at 
Harvard, becoming meanwhile a strong Darwinian. In 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


IOI 


1838-42 he published, with Dr. Torrey, the Flora of North 
America; in 1848-50 Genera Floroe American Boreali-Orient- 
alls Illustrata; other works being A Free Examination of 
Darwin’s Treatise (1861), Darwinia (1876), and Natural 
Science and Religion (1880). He died at New Cambridge, 
January 30. His Scientific Papers were edited in 1889, and 
his Letters in 1893. 

GRAY, JOHN PURDUE (1825-86). American alienist; born 
at Half Moon, Pa., died in Utica, N. Y., November 29. 
He was graduated from Dickinson College in 1846 and took 
a medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1848. 
He was successively assistant physician and medical super¬ 
intendent of the New York State Asylum at Utica. He 
introduced many improvements into the treatment of the 
insane, and was for many years editor of the American 
Journal of Insanity. 

GREENHOW, ROBERT (1800-54). An American physician 
and historian; born in Richmond, Va. He was educated 
at William and Mary College, and afterwards in New York. 
He lectured upon historical subjects, was an apt linguist, 
and published a History of Tripoli (1835), but his chief 
work was a History of Oregon and California (1846). 

GREGORY, JAMES (1753-1821) the compounder of “Greg¬ 
ory’s Mixture;” born at Aberdeen, became in 1776 professor 
of Medicine at Edinburgh, and a leading doctor. He was 
the author of Conspectus Medicince Theoretics and Philoso¬ 
phical and Literary Essays (1792). 

GREGORY, JOHN (1724-73). Grandson of James Gregory, 
was born at Aberdeen, became professor of Medicine at 
Aberdeen in 1755, and in 1766 at Edinburgh. Among his 
works are a Practise of Physic (1772) and Comparison of 
Man with the Animals (1765). 

GREGORY, WILLIAM (1803-58). Professor of Chemistry 
at Glasgow (1837), in King’s College, Aberdeen (1839), 
and at Edinburgh (1844), wrote Outlines of Chemistry 

(1845). 

GREW, NEHEMIAH (1628-1711). Author of the Anatomy 
of Plants, was born at Atherstone, son of the Puritan, Oba- 
diah Grew, D.D. (1607-89), and practised at Coventry and 
in London. 

GROSS, SAMUEL DAVID (1805-84). Surgeon; born near 
Easton, Pa., in 1835, became professor of Pathology at Cin¬ 
cinnati, afterwards professor of Surgery at Louisville and 
New York, and in 1856-82 in Jefferson College. He pub¬ 
lished a System of Surgery (1859; 6th ed. 1882), etc. 


102 A BIOGRAPH ICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

GUDDEN, BERNHARD von (1824-86). A German physi¬ 
cian; born at Cleves, and educated at Bonn, Berlin, and 
Halle. He specialized in the care of the insane; became 
assistant physician at the asylums in Siegburg and Illenau; 
then director of an establishment near Wurzburg* and in 
1869 professor of psychiatry at Zurich. From this posi¬ 
tion he went in 1872 to a like chair at Munich, where he 
also had charge of the mad King Louis II., with whom he 
died (1886) in the attempt to keep him from suicide by 
drowning in the Starnbergersee. His works include: Beit- 
r'dge zur Lehre von der Scabies (2d ed. 1863) ; Experiment - 
aluntersuchungen iiber Schadelwachstum (1874) \ and the 
posthumous papers collected by Grashey (1889); with 
Westphal he edited Archiv filr Psychiatrie und Nerven- 
krankheiten (1868 et seq.). 

GUILLOTIN, JOSEPH IGNACE (1738-1814). A French phy¬ 
sician, born at Saintes. He was a brilliant student, and 
after obtaining his education in a Jesuit college he entered 
the Order as a novitiate, and for several years was a teacher 
in their college at Bordeaux. Afterwards he removed to 
Paris, where he practised medicine with such success as 
to win recognition as one of the foremost physicians of 
the day. He took a prominent part in the early revolution¬ 
ary movement, and his suggestion that some kind of de¬ 
capitating machine be used in inflicting the death penalty, 
forever connected his name with the most terrible events 
of the French Revolution. He was secretary of the Na¬ 
tional Assembly in 1790, after which he retired and took no 
part in the Reign of Terror, during the latter part of which, 
indeed, he was himself a prisoner and in constant danger 
of being guillotined. After the rise of Napoleon he re¬ 
sumed his practise in Paris, where he was one of the 
earliest and most earnest champions of vaccination. 

GULL, SIR WILLIAM WITHEY (1816-90). Physician; born 
December 31, at Colchester, studied at Guy’s Hospital, and 
graduated M.D. at London University in 1841. In 1847-49 
he was professor of Physiology at the Royal Institution, 
and in 1856-65 physician and lecturer at Guy’s. For his 
treatment of the Prince of Wales in 1871 he received a 
baronetcy and was appointed physician to the Queen. He 
died January 29, 1890. Dr. Acland edited his writings on 
cholera, paralysis, alcohol, etc. (New Sydenham Soc. 1893 
et seq.). 

GUNTHER, ANDERNACH JOHANN von (1487-1574). A 
German physician, born in Andernach, Prussia. He was 
educated at Utrecht and Marburg, became professor of Greek 


OF MEDICAL history 


103 


at Louvain, and subsequently took his doctorate in medi¬ 
cine at Paris. There he became physician to Francis I. 
Obliged, as a Protestant, to flee the city, he established 
himself at Strasburg, where he achieved distinction as a 
physician and anatomist. His published works include 
Anatomicarum Institutionum Libri Quattuor (1536). 

GUTHRIE, GEORGE JAMES (1785-1856). An English sur¬ 
geon ; born in London of Scottish parents. He was admitted 
to membership in the Royal College of Surgeons in 1801. 
As army surgeon he served in the Peninsular campaign, 
and his work there won the praise of the Duke of Welling¬ 
ton. In 1816 he began a series of lectures on surgery to 
the officers of the army and navy, which he continued for 
nearly thirty years. His principal works are: On Gunshot 
Wounds of the Extremities Requiring Different Operations 
of Amputation, and Their After Treatment (6th ed. 1855), 
and his Lectures on the Operative Surgery of the Eye (3d 
ed. 1838). 


H 

HAGEN, KARL GOTTFRIED (1749-1829). German physi¬ 
cian and apothecary; born at Konigsberg, Prussia. He 
was appointed professor of medicine at the University of 
Konigsberg in 1779, and professor of chemistry, physics, 
and natural history in 1807. His lectures, which he con¬ 
tinued until his death, exercised a far-reaching influence. 
His best-known work is Lehrbuch der Apothekerkunst (8th 
ed. 1829). 

HAHNEMANN, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH SAMUEL (1755- 

1843). The founder of homeopathy. He was born at Meis- 
en, April 10, studied at Leipzig and Vienna, passed two 
years as physician and librarian to a nobleman in Transyl¬ 
vania, and in 1779 graduated at Erlangen. For ten years 
he practised medicine and held several public appointments; 
then he settled near Leipzig. Dissatisfied with current Ger¬ 
man methods of treatment, he translated foreign works 
(such as Cullen’s Materia Medico); and after six years 
of experiments on the curative power of bark, came to the 
conclusion that medicine produces a very similar condition 
in healthy persons to that which it relieves in the sick. 
His denunciation of blood-letting and the other violent 
modes of treatment, aroused the animosity of physicians, 
while his own infinitestimal doses of medicine provoked 
the apothecaries, who refused to dispense them; accordingly 
he gave his medicines to his patients gratis. For a phy¬ 
sician to dispense his own medicine was an infringement 


104 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


of German law, and he was prosecuted in every town in 
which he attempted to settle from 1798 until 1810, when he 
returned to Leipzig. Two years afterwards he was appointed 
a privat-docent of the university; and there he remained, 
teaching his system to an ever increasing band of disciples 
and practising until 1821, when a successful prosecution for 
dispensing his own medicines drove him out of Leipzig. 
He retired to Kothen, and in 1835 removed to Paris, where 
he died July 2. His Friend of Health (1792), proves 
him to have been far in advance of his time as to preventive 
medicine; in 1794 he adopted those principles of non-re¬ 
straint and kindness in dealing with the insane which later 
were advocated by Pinel in Paris and Conolly in England. 
See Life by Albrecht (2d ed. 1875). 

HAKE, THOMAS GORDON (1809-95). The parable poet; 
was born at Leeds, and educated at Christ’s Hospital, 
traveled a good deal on the Continent; took his M.D. at 
Glasgow, and practised at Bury St. Edmunds, Richmond, 
etc. Among his friends were Burrow, Trelawney, Ros¬ 
setti, his cousin Gordon Pasha, and Watts-Dunton. He 
published Madeline (1871), Parables and Tales (1873), The 
Serpent Play (1883), New Day Sonnets (1890), etc. See 
his Memoirs of Eighty Years (1893). 

HALFORD, SIR HENRY (1766-1844). A courtly London 
physician; born at Leicester, who in 1809 changed his 
name from Vaughan on coming into a large property, and 
was created a baronet. See Life by Munk (1895). 

HALL, MARSHALL (1790-1857). Physician and physiolo¬ 
gist, was born at Basford, England, February 18. After 
studying at Edingurgh, Paris, Gottingen, and Berlin, he 
settled at Nottingham in 1817, and practised in London 
from 1826 until 1853. He died in Brighton, August 11. 
He did important work in regard to the reflex action of 
the spinal system (1833-37) ; his name is also associated 
with a standard method of restoring suspended respiration. 
He wrote on diagnosis (1817), the circulation (1831), Res¬ 
piration and Irritability (1832), etc. See Memoirs by his 
wife (1861). 

HALLER, ALBRECHT von (1708-77). Anatomist, botanist, 
physiologist, and poet; born at Bern, and started practise 
in 1729, but in 1736 was called to a chair at Gottingen. 
Here he organized a botanical garden, an anatomical 
museum and theatre, and an obstetrical school; helped to 
found the Academy of Sciences; wrote anatomical and 
physiological works; and took an active part in the literary 
movement. In 1753 he resigned and returned to Bern, 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


105 


where he became magistrate. After this he wrote three 
political romances, and prepared four large works on the 
bibliography connected with botany, anatomy, surgery and 
medicine. His poems were descriptive, didactic, and (the 
best of them) lyrical. See Lives and other works by 
Thomas Henry (1783), Blosch and Hirzel (1877), Frey 
(1879), Bodemann (1885), Bondi (1891), and Widmann 
(1893). 

HAMILTON, FRANK HASTINGS (1813-1886). An American 
surgeon; born at Wilmington, Vt., September 10; graduate of 
Union College, and received his medical degree from the Uni¬ 
versity of Pennsylvania in 1835; was chosen professor of 
surgery in the Western College of Physicians and Sur¬ 
geons, Fairfield, N. Y., in 1839; and the next year was 
called to the medical college in Geneva, N. Y. In 1846 
he became professor in the Buffalo Medical College, and 
in 1859 was elected to fill the chair of principles and prac¬ 
tise of surgery in the Long Island College Hospital, where 
he remained until the war broke out. For two years he 
served as surgeon in the army, and attained the rank of 
lieutenant-colonel. From 1868 to 1875 he was professor of 
surgery in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and was 
surgeon to the hospital from 1863 to his death, and, during 
President Garfield’s last illness, was one of the consulting 
physicians. Besides numerous contributions to medical 
journals, Dr. Hamilton wrote Treatise on Strabismus 
(1844); Treatise on Fractures and Dislocations (i860); 
Practical Treatise on Military Surgery (1862) ; and The 
Principles and Practise of Surgery (1872). Died in New 
York City, August 11. 

HAMMOND, WILLIAM ALEXANDER (1828-1900). An 
American physician; born at Annapolis, Md., August 28. 
He graduated from the University of New York as medical 
doctor in 1848, and entered the United States army in 1849 
as assistant surgeon, leaving the service in i860, after 
which he accepted a professorship of anatomy and physiol¬ 
ogy in the University of Maryland. At the beginning of 
the Civil War he again entered the army, and in 1862 was 
appointed surgeon-general, with the rank of brigadier-gen¬ 
eral; was dismissed on charge of irregularities in liquor 
contracts, but this sentence was afterward reversed by the 
President and Congress and he was restored to his full 
rank. In 1867 he became a professor in Bellevue Hos¬ 
pital Medical College, and then a member of the faculty 
of the University of the City of New York, medical depart¬ 
ment. In 1882 he lectured on diseases of the nervous sys- 


IO6 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

tem, in the New York Post-Graduate Medical School. 
Among his published works are: Physiological Memoirs 
(1863); a Treatise on Hygiene, with special reference to 
the military service (1863); Sleep and Its Derangements 
(1869); Diseases of the Nervous System (1871) ; Lai 
(1884); A Strong Minded Woman (1885); On the Susque- 
hannah (1887). 

HARE, ROBERT (1781-1858). American scientist; born at 
Philadelphia, January 17; died there May 15. He was 
professo’* of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania 
1818-47. He will ble longest remembered for his dis¬ 
covery of the oxyhydrogen blowpipe to which he gave the 
name of “hydrostatic blowpipe,” but he also invented the 
valve-cock, the calorimeter and a process for denarcotizing 
laudanum. He wrote Brief View of the Resources of the 
United States (1810) ; Chemical Apparatus and Manipula¬ 
tions (1836) ; Memoir on the Explosiveness of Nitre; etc. 

HART, ERNEST ABRAHAM(1835-98). An English physician 
and sanitary reformer; a brilliant pupil of the City of London 
School; first-prize man in every class during his stay at 
St. George’s Hospital Medical School; ophthalmic surgeon 
and lecturer at St. Mary’s Hospital School; wrote a book 
on the treatment of aneurism; chosen by the British Medi¬ 
cal Association as the editor of their Journal; devoted 
himself to the questions concerning social and sanitary 
progress, editing the Sanitary Record and London Medical 
Record; chairman of the National Health Society and the 
Smoke Abatement Committee; exposed the defective ar¬ 
rangements for the sick poor in workhouses; urged the 
measures that culminated in the passage of the Metropoli¬ 
tan Asylums Act in 1867; established societies for the pro¬ 
tection of infant life and for cheap concerts for the poor; 
helped in shaping the Public Health Acts, and in better¬ 
ing the medical departments of the army and navy; worked 
strenuously in favor of such measures as would secure the 
purity of the milk supplied to cities; favored successfully 
the creation of an Irish peasant proprietary by the reclaim¬ 
ing of waste land—a measure embodied in an act of Par¬ 
liament. 

HARTSHORNE, EDWARD (1818-85). American physician; 
son of Dr. Joseph Hartshorne; born in Philadelphia, Pa., 
May 14; graduated from Princeton (1837), and in medicine 
from the University of Pennsylvania (1840) ; resident sur¬ 
geon to the Pennsylvania Hospital (1841) ; physician to 
the Eastern Pennsylvania Penitentiary (1843) ; surgeon in 
Will’s (eye) Hospital (1848), and afterward in the Penn- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


107 


sylvania Hospital. During the war he served as consult¬ 
ing-surgeon in the United States army hospitals and as an 
active member and secretary of the United States Sanitary 
Commission; wrote a Separate System; notes to Taylor’s 
Medical Jurisprudence (1854) ; and Ophthalmic Medicine 
and Surgery (1856). He died June 22. 

HARVEY, WILLIAM (1578-1657). The discoverer of the 
circulation of the blood. He was born at Folkestone, 
April 1. After six years at King’s School, Canterbury, in 
1593 he entered Caius College, Cambridge, took his degree 
in 1597, and after studying at Padua, graduated M.D. both 
there and at Cambridge in 1602, then settled in London 
as a nhysician. In 1609 he was appointed physician to St. 
Bartholomew’s Hospital, and in 1615 Lumleian Lecturer 
at the College of Physicians. In 1628 he published his 
celebrated treatise, Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis 
et Sanguinis, in which is expounded his views of the circu¬ 
lation of the blood. Successively physician to James I. 
and Charles I., he accompanied the Earl of Arundel in his 
embassy to the emperor in 1636, and publicly demonstrated 
his theory at Nuremberg. Harvey was present at the battle 
of Edgehill in attendance on Charles I. (October 23, 1642) ; 
afterward he resided at Oxford, being elected warden of 
Merton College. On the surrender of Oxford to the Par¬ 
liament in July, 1646, he returned to London. During the 
remainder of his life he was usually the guest of one or 
other of his brothers. His Exercitationes de Generatione 
Animalium appeared in 1651. In 1656 he resigned his Lum¬ 
leian lectureship, and in taking leave of the college pre¬ 
sented to it his little estate at Burwash in Sussex. He 
died June 3, and was buried at Hempstead near Saffron 
Walden. In 1883, at the cost of the College of Physicians, 
his remains were removed from the dilapidated vault to 
the Harvey Chapel in the same church. Harvey’s works 
in Latin were published in 1766; a translation by Dr. Wil¬ 
lis appeared in 1847 (new ed. 1881), and his Prcelectiones 
Anatomice in 1887. See Willis’s Life of Harvey (1878), 
and Huxley’s discourse at the Tercentenary celebration 
(Nature, 1878). 

HAVERS, CLOPTON (about 1650-1702). An English anato¬ 
mist and physician. He studied at Cambridge and Utrecht, 
and from the latter college obtained the degree of M.D. 
in 1685. Havers began his medical practise in London, 
and gave special attention to the subject of anatomy em¬ 
bodying his ideas in the Osteologia Nova (1691). This 
work was the first exhaustive treatise on the structure of 


108 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

bone, and served to perpetuate the author’s name by the 
term “Haversian canals.” His other publications are a 
Survey of the Microcosme (1695), and a Discourse of the 
Concoction of the Food (1699). 

HEBERDEN, WILLIAM (1710-1801). A practical physician 
of some celebrity. Was born in London. In 1724 he was 
sent to St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he obtained a 
fellowship about 1730, became master of arts in 1732, and 
took his degree in physic in 1739. He remained at Cam¬ 
bridge about ten years longer as a practitioner of physic, 
and gave an annual course of lectures on materia medica. 
In 1746 he became a fellow of the Royal College of Physi¬ 
cians in London; and two years afterward established him¬ 
self in London, where he was elected a fellow of the Royal 
Society in 1769. In 1778 he was made an honorary mem¬ 
ber of the Royal Society of Medicine at Paris. He died 
May 17. 

HEBRA, FERDINAND RITTER von (1816-80). An Aus- 
train dermatologist; born at Briinn. He was educated at 
the University of Vienna; in 1842 became instructor of the 
medical faculty; was appointed consulting physician of the 
general hospital of the city in 1848, and professor of der¬ 
matology in 1849. He was the first great German der¬ 
matologist, and entirely reformed the therapeutics of the 
science. He strongly indorsed local treatment. He wrote: 
Atlas der Hautkrankheiten, with Elsinger and Heitzmann 
(1856) ; Lehrbuch der Hautkrankeiten, with Kaposi (1872- 
76) ; and a third and smaller work under the former title, 
with Barensprung (1867-68). 

HECKER, JUSTUS FRIEDRICH KARL (1795-1850). A 

German physician and writer of medical history; born 
in Erfurt, Prussian Saxony. He was professor of medi¬ 
cine in the University of Berlin, and wrote: Geschichte der 
Heilkunde (1822-29); Der Schwarze Tod im 14 Jahrhundert 
(1832) ; Die Tanzwut, eine Volkskrankheit im Mittelalter 
(1832), translated into English by B. G. Babington, under 
the title, The Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages (1875) ; 
Der englische Schweiss. Bin drztlicher Beitrag zur Ge¬ 
schichte der neuern Heilkunde (1839) > Kinderfahrten eine 
historisch-pathologische Skizze (1845). 

HELMONT, JAN BAPTISTA van (1577-1644). Chemist; 
born at Brussels, studied medicine, but soon threw him¬ 
self into mysticism. Then, falling in with the writings of 
Paracelsus, he began to study chemistry and natural phi¬ 
losophy. In 1605 he married a noble lady of Brabant, and 
spent the remainder of his life in chemical investigation. 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


109 


Van Helmont first emphasized the use of the balance in 
chemistry, and by its means showed the indestructibility of 
matter in chemical changes. He devoted much study to 
gases, and invented the word gas. He was also the first 
to take the melting-point of ice and the boiling-point of 
water as standards for temperature. He first employed the 
term saturation to signify the combination of an acid with 
a base; and he was one of the earliest investigators of the 
chemistry of the fluids of the human body. His works, 
entitled Ortus Medicine?, were often reprinted. See French 
monograph by Rommelaere (1868). His youngest son, 
Franciscus Mercurius (1614-99) was a teacher of deaf- 
mutes. See French Life by Broeckx (1870). 

HELMUTH, WILLIAM TOD (1833-1902). American physi¬ 
cian; born at Philadelphia, October 30; died in New 
York, May 15; graduated from the Homeopathic Medical 
College, Philadelphia, 1853, and from Hahnemann Col¬ 
lege, San Francisco, 1866. In 1877 he became professor 
of surgery and dean of the New York Homeopathic Col¬ 
lege and Hospital. He was an officer in numerous medical 
associations and a member of the Societe Medicale Homeo- 
pathique of France. Among his published works were: 
Treatise on Diphtheria; Medical Pomposity; System of 
Surgery; Scratches of a Surgeon; Suprapubic Lithotomy. 

HEMPEL, CHARLES JULIUS (1811-79). A German-Amer- 
ican physician; born at Solingen, Prussia, September 5; 
died in Grand Rapids, Mich., September 25. He came to 
America in 1835; graduated at the medical department of 
the University of New York in 1845; became professor of 
materia medica and therapeutics in the Hahnemann Med¬ 
ical College at Philadelphia in 1857; and subsequently prac¬ 
tised medicine at Grand Rapids. He wrote System of Mat¬ 
eria Medica and Therapeutics (1859), etc. 

HENLE, FRIEDRICH GUSTAV JAKOB (1809-85). A noted 
German physiologist and anatomist; born at Fiirth, Ba¬ 
varia, July 9; died in Gottingen, May 13. He was pro¬ 
fessor successively at Zurich (1840), Heidelberg (1844), 
and Gottingen (1852). He wrote Handbuch der rationellen 
Pathologie (1846-52), Handbuch der allgemeinen Anatomie 
(1841), Handbuch der systematischen Anatomie des Men- 
schen (1855-73)* etc. 

HENRY, WILLIAM (1774-1836). Chemist; bom at Man¬ 
chester, studied medicine in Edinburgh, practised in Man¬ 
chester, but soon devoted himself to chemistry. He wrote 
valuable papers in the Philosophical Transactions and Ex¬ 
perimental Chemistry (1799; nth ed. 1829). 


no 


A BIOGRAPHICAL, CYCLOPEDIA 


HERING, CONSTANTINE (1800-80). A German physician; 
born at Oschatz, Saxony, January 1. He studied medicine 
at Leipzig and Wurzburg; was converted to homeopathy 
while preparing a refutation of its theories, and after per¬ 
sonal acquaintance with Hahnemann became his admiring 
friend. The king of Saxony sent him to Surinam to study 
the flora and fauna of that country. In 1833 he arrived 
in Philadelphia, where he founded the first homeopathic 
school in the United States. From 1845 to 1869 he filled 
the chairs of homeopathic materia medica and medicine in 
this school. He edited the Homeopathic Quarterly, the 
Homeopathic News, and the American Journal of Homeo¬ 
pathic Materia Medica. He published in English and Ger¬ 
man on his favorite doctrine, among them the Rise and 
Progress of Homeopathy; Effects of Snake-Poison; Con¬ 
densed Materia Medica; Hering’s Domestic Physician; and 
American Drug Provings. He died in Philadelphia, July 23. 

HEROPHILUS (about 300 B. C.). A famous surgeon; bom 
at Chalcedon in Bithynia. He studied medicine under 
Praxagoras, one of the followers of Hippocrates, and af¬ 
terward went to Alexandria in Egypt, where he became 
famous, and was one of the founders of the medical school 
in that city. His followers later spread to Pergamum, 
Laodicea, and elsewhere. Herophilus’s greatest services 
were performed in the field of anatomy. He discovered the 
nerves and made important observations in connection with 
the eye. Several names which he gave to different parts 
of the body are still in use, one such, tocular Herophili, 
recording his own name. He is said to have practised 
vivisection upon condemned criminals. His writings were 
numerous, but we have only fragments thereof. 

HINTON, JAMES (1822-75). Aurist and mystic; born at 
Reading, the son of a Baptist minister, settled in 
1850 to a London practise, becoming a specialist in aural 
surgery. From 1862 till 1874 he was a lecturer at Guy’s 
Hospital. He died in the Azores, December 16. He wrote 
Man and his Dwelling-place (1859), Life in Nature (1862), 
The Mystery of Pain (1865), Philosophy and Religion 
(1881), and The Law-breakers and Coming of the Law 
(1884). See Life by Ellice Hopkins (1878). 

HIPPOCRATES (about 460-357 B. C.). The most celebrated 
physician of antiquity. He was born on the island of Cos, 
probably about 460 B. C.; and there, after visiting Athens, 
he settled in practise. He died at Larissa in Thessaly 
357 or 359. The seventy-two works bearing his name were 
divided by Dr. Greenhill into eight classes. The first class 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


III 


comprises works certainly written by Hippocrates, including 
Prognostica; Aphorismi (perhaps not all genuine); De 
Morbis Popularibus; De Ratione Victus in Morbis Acutis; 
De A 'ere, Aquis, et Locis; and De Capitis Vulneribus. The 
second class is composed of works perhaps written by Hip¬ 
pocrates. The others consist of works written before Hip¬ 
pocrates, works whose authorship is conjectural, works by 
quite unknown authors, wilful forgeries, etc. Hippocrates 
seems to have gathered up all that was sound in the past 
history of medicine, was good in diagnosis and prognosis, 
and believed that the four fluids or humors of the body 
(blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile) are the primary 
seats of disease. His works were first printed in a Latin 
translation in 1525. The first Greek edition (The Aldine) 
appeared in 1526. Good editions are by Littre, with French 
translations (10 vols. 1839-61) and Fuchs (3 vols. Mun. 
1895). A scholarly edition by Ermerius, with a Latin render¬ 
ing, was published in 1859-65; and an excellent English 
translation of the Genuine Works of Hippocrates in 1849 by 
Adams. 

HIRSH, AUGUST (1817-94). A German physician, born 
at Danzig, where he practised after studying at Berlin, and 
Leipzig. In recognition of his studies on malarial fever and 
his work, Handbuch der historisch-giograpkischen Pathol- 
ogie (2d ed. 1881-83), he was in 1863 made professor at 
Berlin. In 1873 he was a member of the German Cholera 
Commission, studied the conditions of Posen and West 
Prussia, and published a valuable report (1874). He stud¬ 
ied the plague in Astrakhan in 1879, and 1880, and in the 
latter year wrote a report to his Government. His more 
important writings are: Die Meningitis Cerebro-spinalgis 
Bpidemica (1866); Geschichte der Augenheilkunde (1877) ; 
Geschichte der medizinischen Wissenschaften in Deutsch¬ 
land (1893); a revision of Hecker’s collected writings, un¬ 
der the title Die grossen Volkskrankheiten des Mittelalters 
(1865). He edited Biographische Lexikon der hervorragen- 
den Aerzte Alter Zeiten und Volker (1884-88) ; and with 
Virchow the Jahresberecht iiber die Fortschrette und Leis- 
tungen der Medizin (1866 et seq.). 

HODGE, HUGH LENOX (1796-1873). An American sur¬ 
geon; born at Philadelphia, June 27; graduated from 
Princeton; took medical degree from the University of 
Pennsylvania, and was for many years professor of obstetrics 
in the latter institution. He wrote a standard treatise on 
Diseases Peculiar to Women (1868), and was the author 
of a System of Obstetrics (1864). He died in Philadelphia, 
February 23. 


II 2 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


HOEVEN, JAN van der (1801-68). Physician and zo¬ 
ological professor at Leyden, wrote a handbook of Zoology 
(trans. 1858). His brother, Cornelius Pruys (1792-1871), 
professor of Medicine at Leyden, wrote De Historia Medi¬ 
cines (1842) and De Historia Morborum (1846). 

HOFFMAN, FREDERICH (1660-1742). Was professor of 
medicine at Halle, and body physician to Frederick I. of 
Prussia. His chief work is Medicina Rationalis Systematica 
(1718-40). 

HOFFMANN, HEINRICH (1809-94). A Frankfort Doctor, 
the author and illustrator of the immortal Struwwelpeter 

(1847). 

HOFMANN, AUGUST WILHELM von (1818-92). Chemist; 
born at Giessen, April 8, became assistant there to Liebig. 
When the Royal College of Chemistry was established in 
London in 1845 Hofmann was made superintendent; and 
from 1856 to 1865 he was chemist to the royal mint. In 
1865 he went to Berlin as professor of Chemistry, and, en¬ 
nobled in 1888, he died there, May 5. His contributions to 
the scientific journals were mainly on organic chemistry. 
In the course of these researches he obtained aniline from 
coal-products. He devoted much labor to the theory of 
chemical types. His Introduction to Modern Chemistry 
(1865; 7th ed. 1877) led to great reforms in the teaching 
of chemistry. He wrote The Life-work of Liebig (1876), 
and, in German, on the chemists Wohler (1883) and Dumas 
(1885), as also Chemische Erinnerungen (1882). 

HOLLAND, SIR HENRY (1788-1873). Physician and writer. 
He was bom at Knutsford, Cheshire, October 27; grad¬ 
uated at Edinburgh in 1811, and in 1815 published Travels 
in Albania, Thessaly, etc. He settled in London in 1816 
and became one of the heads of his profession. In 1840, 
he was appointed physician to the Prince Consort, in 1852 
to the Queen, and in 1853 was created a baronet. He pub¬ 
lished Medical Notes and Reflections (1839), Chapters on 
Mental Physiology (1852), Essays on Scientific Subjects 
(1862), and Recollections of Past Life (1871). He died in 
London, October 27. 

HOLMES, OLIVER WENDELL (1809-94). Born in Cam¬ 
bridge, Mass., August 29, graduated at Harvard College in 
1829, and, giving up law for medicine, spent two years in 
the hospitals of Europe. In 1839-41 he was professor of 
Anatomy and Physiology at Dartmouth College; then he 
engaged in general practise in Boston. From 1847 to 1882 
he was professor of Anatomy at Harvard. He began writ¬ 
ing verse while an undergraduate, but his first efforts were 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


113 

not remarkable. Twenty years passed with desultory efforts 
and a slowly-increasing power, when The Autocrat of the 
Breakfast Table (1857-58) suddenly made him famous by 
its fresh unconventional tone, its playful wit and wisdom, 
and its lovely vignettes of verse. The Professor at the 
Breakfast Table (1858-59) and The Poet at the Breakfast 
Table (1872) deal with deeper questions in a less familiar 
way. His first effort in fiction was Elsie Venner (1859-60), 
a study of heredity. The Guardian Angel (1867), is a pic¬ 
ture of rural New England. A Moral Antipathy (1885), 
contains but a thread of story. These works appeared in the 
Atlantic Monthly, of which he was one of the founders. 
He wrote for it also, many occasional essays and poems. 
Besides the early volume of poems (1836), he published 
Songs in Many Keys (1862), Songs of Many Seasons, 
(1875), The Iron Gate (1880), and Before the Curfew 
(1888). Other prose works are Currents and Counter-cur¬ 
rents (1861), Soundings from the Atlantic (1864), Border 
Lines of Knowledge (1862), Mechanism in Thought and 
Morals (1871), and Memoirs of Motley (1879) and Emer¬ 
son (1885). He also wrote Our Hundred Days in Europe 
(1887), an account of a visit made in 1886, during which 
he received honors from the Universities of Cambridge, 
Oxford and Edinburgh. He died in Boston, October 7. 
See Lives by Kennedy (1883), Emma E. Brown (1884), 
and Morse (1896). 

HOLMGREN, ALARIK FRITHIOF (1831-97). A Swedish 
physiologist; born in Vestra Ny (East Gotland), and edu¬ 
cated at the University of Upsala, at the University of 
Berlin under DuBois-Reymond and Helmholtz, and under 
Briicke and Ludwig in Vienna. In 1864 he became pro¬ 
fessor of physiology at Upsala, the first chair in that sub¬ 
ject in Sweden, and soon afterwards founded a physiological 
laboratory. His medical studies were mostly in the field of 
ophthalmology, and he was an authority on color-blindness. 
His work on this subject, Om fdrgblindheten i dess forhal- 
lende till jdrnvagstrafiken och sjovdsenet (1887) has been 
translated into many languages. Holmgren was a firm be¬ 
liever in the hygienic value of Swedish gymnastics. He 
edited the Skandinavisches Archiv fur Physiologie (1889- 
et seq.). 

HOME, SIR EVERARD (1756-1832). A Scottish surgeon and 
anatomist; born at Hull, England, May 6; died in London, 
August 31. He was a pupil of his brother-in-law, John 
Hunter, and later his assistant. From 1821 he was surgeon 
to Chelsea Hospital. He wrote Lectures on Comparative 
Anatomy (1814-28), etc. 

8 


114 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

HOOKER, WORTHINGTON (1806-1867). An American phy¬ 
sician and medical and scientific writer; born at Spring- 
field, Mass., March 2; died in New Haven, Conn., Novem¬ 
ber 6. He was professor of the theory and practise of 
medicine at Yale, from 1852 until his death. 

HORNER, WILLIAM EDMONDS (1793-1853). An American 
physician; born in Warrentown, Va. He graduated at the 
University of Pennsylvania in 1814, was surgeon for a time 
in the United States Navy, and from 1831, until his death, 
was professor of anatomy in the University of Pennsyl¬ 
vania. In 1847 he founded Saint Joseph’s Hospital. In 
1824 he announced the discovery of the muscle (tensor 
tarsi) known as “Horner’s muscle.” He published a num¬ 
ber of medical works, including: Pathological Anatomy; 
Practical Anatomist (1856) ; Special Anatomy and Hist¬ 
ology (8th ed. 1851) ; The United States Dissector (5th ed. 
1856) ; and superintended the preparation of an Anatomical 
Atlas by Henry H. Smith (1844). 

HORSFORD, EBENEZER NORTON (1818-93). Chemist; born 
at Moscow, N. Y.; died in Cambridge, having filled a chair 
at Harvard, 1847-63. 

HOSACK, DAVID (1769-1835). American physician and 
author; born at New York, August 31; died there Decem¬ 
ber 23. He was graduated from Princeton College in 1789, 
and concluded his medical studies in Philadelphia in 1791. 
In 1795 he was appointed professor of botany in Columbia 
College. In 1796 the chair of materia medica was assigned 
to Hosack, who held it with that of botany until 1807, when 
he. accepted the department of materia medica and of mid¬ 
wifery in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He held 
at different times several public trusts, as physician to the 
New York Hospital, and the Bloomingdale Asylum, resi¬ 
dent of the city of New York, etc. He was among the 
original projectors of the New York Historical Society, of 
the Horticultural Society, and of the New York Literary 
and Philosophical Society. He was the author of Annals 
of Medicine (1793) ; Hortus Blginesis (1808) ; and numer¬ 
ous papers on medical subjects. 

HOWARD, LUKE (1772-1864). Chemist, botanist, and early 
meteorologist. Was born of Quaker parentage in London, 
and died at Tottenham. 

HOWE, SAMUEL GRIDLEY (1801-76). American philan¬ 
thropist; born at Boston; organized the medical staff of 
the Greek army in 1824-27, went to America to raise con¬ 
tributions, and, returning with supplies, formed a colony 
on the isthmus of Corinth. Swamp-fever drove him from 


OF MEDICAIv HISTORY 


H5 

that country in 1830. In 1831 he went to Paris to study the* 
methods of educating the blind, and becoming mixed up in 
the Polish insurrection, spent six weeks in a Prussian 
prison. On his return to Boston he established schools for 
the blind and for idiots. In 1851-53 he edited the anti¬ 
slavery Commonwealth, and in 1867 revisited Greece 
with supplies for the Cretans. See Life by F. A. San¬ 
born (N. Y. 1891).—His wife, Julia Ward, born in 
New York, May 27, 1819, became prominent in the woman 
suffrage movement, preached in Unitarian pulpits, and pub¬ 
lished, besides narratives of travel and a Life of Margaret 
Fuller, several volumes of poems and the Battle Hymn of 
the Republic (1861). 

HUARTE, JUAN DE DIOS (about 1520-1600). A Spanish 
physician and philosopher; born in Navarre. He wrote a 
curious book on phrenology, Examen de ingenios para las 
sciencias (1578). This volume was extremely popular, and 
was translated into several European languages—into Eng¬ 
lish as A Trial of Wits. Some of his theories on education 
are very enlightened for the time, while others are fan¬ 
tastic in the extreme. 

HUDSON, ERASMUS DARWIN (1805-1880). An American 
surgeon; born in Torringford, Conn., December 15; gradu¬ 
ated at the Berkshire Medical School in 1827; from 1837 to 
1849 was lecturing-agent for the Connecticut Antislavery 
Society; received an appointment from the government 
during the Civil War, to devise mechanical apparatus to be 
used in special cases of gun-shot wounds. From 1850 till 
his death he lived in New York, devoting himself to the 
construction of artificial limbs, etc. He was the author of 
Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion 
1870-72). He died in Greenwich, Conn., December 31. 

HUFELAND, CHRISTOPH WILHELM (1762-1836). A Ger¬ 
man physician; born at Langensalza in Thuringia. He 
udied medicine at Jena and Gottingen, was professor of 
medicine at Jena from 1793 to 1798; was physician in ordi¬ 
nary at the Court of Weimar, and resided at Berlin from 
1798, where he was professor of therapeutics and pathology 
from the foundation of the university in 1810. He had a 
very high reputation for learning and skill as a physician, 
and he was equally esteemed for his intellectual abilities, 
and his noble and benevolent character. His published works 
are numerous, chiefly on medical and physiological sub¬ 
jects. His Makrobiotik, or the Art of Prolonging Life 
(1796), was translated into almost all the languages of 
Europe. Among his most important works are: Ueber die 


II6 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

Ursachen, Erkenntnis und Heilart der Skrofelkrankheit 
( 1795 ) ; Guter Rath an Mutter iiber die wichtigsten Punkte 
der physischen Ersiehung der Kinder (i 799 ) > and Enchiri¬ 
dion Medicum (1836). 

HUNTER, JOHN (1728-93). Physiologist and surgeon; born 
at Long Calderwood, February 13. He became his brother’s 
assistant in the dissecting-room (1748), studied surgery at 
Chelsea Hospital and St. Bartholomew’s, and in 1754 
entered St. George’s Hospital, becoming house-surgeon in 
1756 and lecturer for his brother in the anatomical school. 
In 1759 his health gave way, and in 1760 he entered the 
army as staff-surgeon, and served in the expedition to 
Belleisle and Portugal. At the peace in 1763 he started the 
practise of surgery in London, and devoted much time and 
money to comparative anatomy. In 1767 he was elected 
F.R.S., and in 1768 was appointed surgeon to St. George’s 
Hospital. In 1776 he was appointed surgeon-extraordinary 
to the king. In 1785 he built his museum, with lecture- 
rooms, and tried his famous operation for the cure of 
aneurism. In 1786 he was appointed deputy-surgeon-general 
to the army. He died October 16, and was buried in the 
church of St.-Martin’s-in-the-Fields, whence, thanks to 
Frank Buckland, his remains were translated in March, 
1859 to Westminster Abbey. Hunter’s collection, contain¬ 
ing 10,563 specimens, was purchased by the government in 
1795 for £15,000, and presented to the Royal College of Sur¬ 
geons. He married in 1771 Anne Home (1742-1821), au¬ 
thor of My Mother bids me bind my hair, and other 
songs set to music by Haydn. In addition to the numerous 
papers to the Transactions, he published books on the hu¬ 
man teeth (1771-78), on venereal disease (1786), and A 
Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, and Gunshot Wounds 
(1794). See the edition of his works by Palmer (1835), 
with prefixed Life by Otley, and Dr. Mather’s Two Great 
Scotchmen (1894). 

HUNTER, WILLIAM (1718-83). Anatomist and obstetrician. 
He was born at Long Calderwood, East Kilbride, May 23., 
He studied five years at Glasgow University with a view to 
the church, but in 1737 took up medicine, and, coming up to 
London from Edinburgh in 1741, was trained in anatomy at 
St. George’s Hospital and elsewhere. From about 1748 he 
confined his practise to midwifery; in 1764 was appointed 
physician-extraordinary to Queen Charlotte; in 1767 was 
elected an F.R.S.; and in 1768 became professor of An¬ 
atomy to the Royal Academy. In 1770 he built a house 
with an ampitheatre for lectures, a dissecting-room, a 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


II 7 


museum, and a cabinet of medals and coins. He died March 
3°» 1783. His museum was bequeathed finally, with an en¬ 
dowment of £8,000, to Glasgow University. His chief work 
was on the uterus. 

HUTTON, JAMES (1726-97). One of the founders of geol¬ 
ogy. He was born at Edinburgh; studied medicine there, in 
Paris, and at Leyden, but in 1754 settled in Berwickshire 
and devoted himself to agriculture and chemistry, from which 
he was led to mineralogy and geology; in 1768 he removed 
to Edinburgh. The Huttonian theory, emphasizing the 
igneous origin of many rocks, and deprecating the hypo¬ 
thetical assumption of other causes than those we see still 
at work, was expounded in two papers read before the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh, A Theory of the Barth (1785) and 
A Theory of Rain (1784). The former was afterwards ex¬ 
panded into two volumes (1795). He also wrote Disserta¬ 
tions in Natural Philosophy (1792), Considerations on the 
Nature of Coal and Culm (1777), and other works. 

HUXLEY, THOMAS HENRY (1825-95). Biologist, born at 
Ealing, Middlesex, May 4, studied medicine at Charing 
Cross Hospital, and in 1846-50, as assistant-surgeon of H. 
M. S. Rattlesnake, surveying the passage between the Barrier 
Reef and the Australian coast, collected marine animals, 
and made them the subjects of scientific papers for the Royal 
and Linnean Societies—notably one on the Medusas. An 
F.R.S. from 1851, he in 1853 wrote his memoir on the morph¬ 
ology of the Cephalous Mollusca. In 1854 he was appointed 
professor of Natural History, including Palaeontology, in 
the Royal School of Mines, a post he held, with a curator- 
ship in the Museum of Practical Geology, till 1885. In 1854 
he wrote on the anatomy of the Brachiopoda. In 1856 he 
accompanied Tyndall to the Alps, and was joint-author of 
Observations on Glaciers (1857). In 1859 his Oceanic Hydro- 
zoa was published by the Ray Society. His main work was 
vertebrate morphology and palaeontology, with occasional 
excursions into ethnology; but he produced also papers on 
the Aphis (1858), the Pyrosoma (i860), a manual of the 
Invertebrata (1877), and a work on Crayfishes (1878). In 
vertebrate morphology there were the Theory of the Verte¬ 
brate Skull, (1858), Man's Place in Nature (i863),the article 
Amphibia, in Bnc. Britannica (1875), Lectures on Compara¬ 
tive Anatomy (1864), and An Introduction to the Classifica¬ 
tion of Animals (1869). In palaeontology there were memoirs 
on Pterygotus (1858) and Belemnites (1864), Fossil Fishes 
(1862), the Neanderthal Skull (1864), Reptilian Remains 
from India (1864), and Evidences of Affinity Between Rep- 


Il8 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

tiles and Birds (1869-70). There were separate works on 
Elementary Physiology (1866), Physiography (18 77 ) > Hume 
(1879), and Science and Culture (1881). Lay Sermons ap¬ 
peared in 1870; Essays on Controverted Questions in 1892; 
and Collected Essays were republished, with an auto¬ 
biographical article (9 vols. 1893-95). Huxley greatly in¬ 
terested himself in educational questions, strongly advo¬ 
cated Darwin’s views and evolutionist doctrines, and in 
the magazines and elsewhere dealt in a trenchant manner 
with what he regarded as the obscurantist views of orthodox 
theologians and biblical students. He held examinerships 
and professorships in the University of London, the Royal 
Institution, and the Royal College of Surgeons; was presi¬ 
dent of the Ethnological Society and of the British Associa¬ 
tion; and was secretary and president of the Geological 
Society and of the Royal Society. He was elected in 1873 
Lord Rector of the University of Aberdeen, and a member 
of the London School Board in 1870. He was Inspector of 
Salmon-fisheries 1881-85. A member of the Privy Council 
from 1892, he died at Eastbourne, June 29, and was buried 
in Marylebone Cemetery, Finchley. See Life by his son 
Leonard (1897). 

HYRTL, JOSEPH (1811-94). An Austrian anatomist; born 
at Eisenstadt, Hungary, December 7; studied at Vienna, 
and acquired eminence as a scientific anatomist. He 
became professor of anatomy in Prague in 1837, and at 
Vienna in 1845. He contributed not a little to the progress 
of comparative anatomy, especially that of fishes, and made 
the anatomy of the ear a subject of particular investigation. 
He produced many books and articles on the subjects above 
indicated. Hyrtl formed a museum of comparative anatomy 
at Vienna, and became rector of the university. He was the 
author of Topographische Anatomie (1847); Handbuch der 
Praktischen Zergliederungskunst (i860); Ueber Ampullen 
am Ductus Cysticus der Fische (1868) ; Das Nierenbecken 
der Sdugethire und des Menschen (1870) ; Das Arabische 
und Hebrdische in der Anatomie (1879); Die Alten 
Deutschen Kunstworte der Anatomie (1884); and other 
works. He died in Vienna, July 16. 

I 

IBN ABI USEIBIA, MUWAFFAK AD-DIN (about 1195-1269). 

An Arabic physician and author. He was born in Cairo, of 
a family of physicians; lived in Egypt and Syria, and was 
educated at Damascus (1227-33). For two years he was 
head of a hospital at Damascus, then became Court doctor 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


119 

to a Syrian emir. He is best known for his biographical 
lexicon of Mohammedan physicians, which has been edited 
by August Muller (Konigsberg, 1884), and commented on 
by the same in Ueber I bn Abi und seine Geschichte der 
Aerzte (Leyden, 1885). Consult Wustenfeld, Geschichte 
der arabischen Aerzte und Naturforscher (Gottingen, 1840) ; 
Leclerc, Histoire de la medecine arabe (Paris, 1876); Tra- 
vaux de la Verne session du Congres international des 
Orientalistes d Leide, vol. II. (Leyden, 1884). 

INGENHOUSZ, JOHANNES (1730-79). A Dutch physician. 
He died in England. 


J 

JACKSON, ABRAHAM REEVES (1827-92). An American 
surgeon; born in Philadelphia, June 17. After completing 
his education at the Pennsylvania Medical College, he prac¬ 
tised at Stroudsburg until 1870, when he removed to Chi¬ 
cago, and founded the Woman’s Hospital of the State of 
Illinois, of which he became surgeon-in-chief. In 1872 he 
was elected to the chair of diseases of women, a position 
which he held until elected president of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons, at Chicago. He published a 
large number of valuable articles on diseases peculiar to 
women. 

JACKSON, CHARLES THOMAS (1805-80). An American 
scientist; born at Plymouth, Mass., June 21. After studying 
medicine in America and Europe he settled in Boston, and 
began the practice of his profession. In 1838 he opened a 
laboratory for research in analytical chemistry, the first of 
its kind in the United States. In 1836 he was made state 
geologist of Maine, in 1839 of Rhode Island, and in 1841 
of New Hampshire, retaining the last office until 1844. In 
1847 congress appointed him to survey the mineral lands of 
Michigan, but, after two years devoted to this work, he 
was displaced in consequence of political changes. Dr. 
Jackson made many important scientific discoveries, one of 
the most valuable being that of etherization, for which he 
received a prize of 2,500 francs from the French Academy 
of Science. There have been several other claimants for the 
honor of having made this discovery, among them Horace 
Wells and W. G. T. Morton. He published many papers 
and reports, besides a Manual of Etherization, with a His¬ 
tory of its Discovery (1861). He died at Somerville, Mass., 
August 29. 

JACKSON, JAMES (1777-1867). An American physician; 


120 


A BIOGRAPH ICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


brother of Charles Jackson; born at Newburyport, Mass., 
October 3. He was graduated from Harvard College in 
1796; studied medicine in London, and on his return to 
Boston, in 1800, commenced practise there, devoting himself 
entirely to medical practise, to the exclusion of surgery and 
other branches. In 1803 he became a member of the Massa¬ 
chusetts Medical Society. In 1810, with Dr. John C. War¬ 
ren, he brought before the community a proposition for 
establishing a hospital in the city of Boston. The first re¬ 
sult of this was the organization of the asylum of the in¬ 
sane at Somerville, then included in Charlestown, and after¬ 
ward of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. 
Dr. Jackson was the first physician, and Dr. Warren was the 
first surgeon, to this institution. In 1810 he was chosen 
professor of clinical medicine in Harvard, and in 1812 pro¬ 
fessor of theory and practise, becoming professor emeritus 
in 1835. His principal publications were: On the Brunonian 
System (1809); Remarks on the Medical Effects of Den¬ 
tition; Letters to a Young Physician (1855). Of the last 
work several editions were printed. 

JACKSON, MERCY BISBEE (1802-77). An American phy¬ 
sician; born at Hardwick, Mass., September 17; practised 
medicine at Plymouth, and Boston, and in i860 graduated 
from the New England Female Medical College. She was 
the first woman admitted to the American Institute of 
Homeopathy. She became professor of the diseases of 
children, in the Boston University School of Medicine, in 
1873. She died in Boston, December 13. 

JAMES, ROBERT (1705-76). A London physician. He was 
the discoverer of the patent diaphoretic medicine called 
James’s Powder. 

JARVIS, EDWARD (1803-84). American author and physiol¬ 
ogist; born at Concord, Mass., January 9; was graduated 
at Harvard in 1826, and practised medicine in Massachusetts, 
where he became well known as an authority on insanity. In 
1852, Dr. Jarvis became president of the American Statistical 
Association, and in this capacity prepared a large number 
of reports and tables on public health, longevity, mortality- 
rates and other matters pertaining to state medicine. He 
also wrote Practical Physiology (1848) ; and Primary Physi¬ 
ology (1859). He died at Dorchester, Mass., October 31. 

JAY, SIR JAMES (1732-1815). An American physician; 
brother of John Jay. He was born in New York city, 
studied medicine, and became a practising physician. He 
was instrumental in obtaining the endowments for King’s 
(now Columbia) College, New York, and Benjamin Frank- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


121 


lin’s projected college (now the University of Pennsyl¬ 
vania) in Philadelphia. For the purpose of soliciting con¬ 
tributions for these colleges, he visited England in 1762, 
where he was knighted by King George III. His writings 
include two pamphlets relating to the collections made for 
the colleges in America (1771 and 1774), and Reflections 
and Observations on the Gout (1772). 

JEFFRIES, JOHN (1744-1819). An American surgeon; born 
at Boston, February 5; graduated at Harvard, and studied 
medicine in London and Aberdeen. He returned to Boston 
in 1769; but on the evacuation of that city in 1776, ac¬ 
companied the British army to Halifax, and was appointed 
surgeon-general of the forces in Nova Scotia by General 
Howe, and in 1779 surgeon-general of the British forces 
in America, with headquarters in Savannah, Ga. Returning 
to London at the close of hostilities, he devoted himself to 
practise with great success, and also to scientific experiments 
upon atmospheric phenomena, and to test the practicability 
of aerial navigation, made two balloon ascensions; in the 
second, January 7, 1785, ascending from the cliffs of Dover 
and alighting in the northeastern part of France. In 1789, Dr. 
Jeffries returned to Boston, where he gained great eminence, 
and still greater notoriety in attempting to give public 
lectures on anatomy; but on account of the great popular 
sentiment existing against dissection, he was compelled by 
mob violence to discontinue his course of instruction. He 
died in Boston, Sept. 16. 

JENNER, EDWARD (1749-1823). The discoverer of vaccin¬ 
ation; born at Berkeley vicarage, Gloucestershire, May 17. 
He was apprenticed to a surgeon at Sodbury; in 1770 went 
to London to study under John Hunter, and in 1773 settled 
at Berkeley, where he acquired a large practise. In 1775 he 
began to examine into the truth of the traditions respecting 
cow-pox, became convinced that it was efficacious as a pro¬ 
tection against small-pox, and was led to hope that he would 
be able to propagate it from one human being to another, 
till he had disseminated the practise all over the globe, to the 
total extinction of small-pox. Many investigations delayed 
the actual discovery of the prophylactic power of vaccina¬ 
tion, and the crowning experiment was made on May 14, 
1796. This experiment was followed by many others; and 
in 1798, Jenner published his Inquiry into the Causes and 
Effects of the Variolce Vaccince. Yet the practise met with 
violent opposition for a year, when upwards of seventy of 
the principal physicians and surgeons in London signed a 
declaration of their entire confidence in it. Jenner’s dis- 


122 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


covery was soon promulgated throughout the civilized world. 
Honors were conferred upon him, and he was elected an 
honorary member of nearly all the learned societies of 
Europe. Parliament voted him in 1802 a grant of £10,000, 
and in 1807 a second grant of £20,000. He died at Berkeley, 
January 26. See his Life and Correspondence , by Dr. J. 
Baron (1827-38; 2d ed. 1850). 

JENNER, SIR WILLIAM (1815-98). Physician; born at 
Chatham; was educated at University College, London, 
where he was professor 1848-79. He became phy¬ 
sician in ordinary to the Queen in 1862, and to the Prince 
of Wales in 1863; was made baronet in 1868, G.C.B., 
F.R.S., etc. He established the difference between typhus 
and typhoid fevers (1851). His Lectures and Essays on 
Fever and Diphtheria were published in 1893. 

JOHNSTON, or JONSTON, ARTHUR (1587-1641). Physician 
and humanist; born at Caskieben, Aberdeenshire; he gradu¬ 
ated M.D. at Padua in 1610/ and visited many seats of 
learning. He practised medicine in France, whence his 
fame as a Latin poet spread over Europe. About 1625 he 
was appointed physician to King Charles I. His famous 
translation of the Psalms of David into Latin verse was 
published at Aberdeen in 1637. He helped to bring out the 
Delitice Poetarum Scotorum hujus Alvi (1637), to which he 
also contributed notable poems. In 1637 he became rector of 
King’s College, Aberdeen, but his avocations as court phy¬ 
sician kept him mainly in England. He died suddenly at 
Oxford in 1641. See monograph by Principal Geddes 
(1890). 

JOHNSTON, JAMES FINLAY WEIR (1796-1855). Agricul¬ 
tural chemist. He was born of humble parentage at Paisley, 
and studied at Glasgow and at Stoekholm (under Berzelius). 
In 1833 he became reader in chemistry and mineralogy at 
Durham, and there he died; but he resided chiefly in Edin¬ 
burgh. He published Elements of Agricultural Chemistry 
(1842; 17th ed. 1894), Catechism of Agricultural Chemistry 
and Geology (1844; over 50 editions), and Chemistry of 
Common Life (1854; new ed. by Church, 1879). 

JONES, ANSON (1798-1858). An American statesman. He 
was born in Great Barrington, Mass., January 20; began the 
practise of medicine in 1820, at Litchfield, Conn., and in 
1833 settled in Brazoria county, Texas. During the war 
between Texas and Mexico, he was a surgeon in the 
Texan army, and in 1837 he was chosen to the Texan con¬ 
gress. From 1837 to 1839 he was minister to the United 
States government; in 1840 member of the senate; from 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


123 


1841 to 1844 secretary of state; and from 1844 to its an¬ 
nexation to the United States was president of Texas. He 
strongly opposed annexation, and after it was accomplished, 
retired and engaged for the rest of his life in agriculture. 
He died January 7. 

JONES, JOHN (1729-91). An American surgeon; born at 
Jamaica, N. Y., of Welsh descent. He studied medicine at 
Paris, Leyden, London, and Edinburgh; practised in New 
York; became professor of surgery in King’s College; and, 
with Dr. S. Bard, founded the New York Hospital (1771). 
When New York was occupied by the British, he went to 
Philadelphia, where he was elected one of the physicians of 
the Pennsylvania Hospital; and in 1787, on the institu¬ 
tion of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, he was 
elected vice-president. He was Washington’s family phy¬ 
sician in Philadelphia, and the intimate friend and physician 
of Franklin, whom he attended in his last illness. He 
published Plain Remarks upon Wounds and Fractures 
(i 775 )» republished with a memoir by Dr. Mease (1795). 
Jones was a skillful operator, and especially well known for 
his success in lithotomy. 

JORG, JOHANN CHRISTIAN GOTTFRIED (1779-1856). A 
German physician; born at Prodel, and educated at Leipzig, 
where in 1810 he was made professor of midwifery. He did 
much to improve this branch of medicine, especially by the 
invention of mechanical aids and by a new system of 
Caesarean section, gastro-elytrotomy. In general, he sought 
milder methods both in obstetrics and orthopedy. He wrote: 
Handbuch der Krankheiten des Weibes (3d ed., 1831); 
Handbuch der Gehurtshilfe (3d ed. 1833); Handbuch 
sum Brkennen und Heilen der Kinderkrankheiten (2d ed., 
1836) ; and Lehrbuch der Hebammenkunst (5th ed., 1855). 

JUNG, JOHANN HEINRICH “Jung Stilling” (1740-1817). A 
famous operator for cataract. He studied medicine at Stras- 
burg, and practised at Elberfeld. Professor of Political 
Economy at Marburg (1787-1804) and then at Heidelberg, 
he wrote semi-mystical, semi-pietistic romances and works 
on political economy, but is best remembered by his charm¬ 
ing autobiography (1777-1817; Eng. trans. 1835). 

K 

KANE, ELISHA KENT (1820-57). Arctic explorer; born in 
Philadelphia, February 3, and entering the U. S. navy 
as surgeon, visited China, the East Indies, Arabia, 
Egypt, Europe, the west coast of Africa, and Mexico. In 


124 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


1850 he sailed as surgeon and naturalist with the first Grin¬ 
ned expedition. His account of it appeared in 1854- I n 
1853 he again set out, this time as commander of an expe¬ 
dition; the results of which are fully detailed in his Second 
Grinnell Expedition (1856). He died at Havana, Febru¬ 
ary 16. See Life by Elder (1858), and the briefer one by 
Jones (1890). 

KANE, SIR ROBERT (1809-1890). Chemist; born in Dublin, 
September 24; studied medicine, and ih 1831 became pro¬ 
fessor of Chemistry there, next year starting the Dublin 
Journal of Medical Science. In 1846 he originated the 
Museum of Industry in Ireland, was appointed its first di¬ 
rector, and was knighted. He was president of Queen’s 
College, Cork (1845-73), and in 1877 was elected president 
of the Royal Irish Academy. He died February 16. His 
chief books are Elements of Chemistry (1842) and In¬ 
dustrial Resources of Ireland (1844). 

KEDZIE, ROBERT CLARK (1823-1902). An American chem¬ 
ist. He was born at Delhi, N. Y.; was largely self-educated 
before his entrance to Oberlin College, from which he was 
graduated in 1847, and spent the following years studying 
medicine in the University of Michigan. He practised at 
Vermontville, Mich., from 1852 until the outbreak of the 
Civil War, and, after serving as surgeon in the army, re¬ 
sumed the practice of medicine, at Lansing. He was elected 
to the chair of chemistry in the Michigan Agricultural 
College in 1863, and to the state legislature in 1870. As 
president of the State Board of Health, he paid special at¬ 
tention to arsenical wall-papers, and invented an oil-tester 
for the detection of inferior and dangerous grades of oil. 
But his most important service was to agricultural chem¬ 
istry. 

KEELEY, LESLIE E. (1836-1900). American physician; 
born in St. Lawrence county, N. Y.; removed in early life 
to Michigan; in 1863 graduated from Rush Medical College, 
Chicago; received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the 
University of St. Louis; was a surgeon in the War of the 
Rebellion; located in general practise at Dwight, Ills., in 
1866. Dr. Keeley gained much notoriety on account of the 
methods in his treatment of alcoholism and narcotism. Re¬ 
garding inebriety as a disease rather than a vice, his treat¬ 
ment was essentially therapeutic, though moral and social 
agencies were auxiliary means. His formulas were not 
given to the medical profession. His system was used in the 
United States army, in the national homes for disabled volun¬ 
teer soldiers, among the Indians, and in state charitable insti- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


125 


tutions. His book, The Non-Heredity of Inebriety, was 
published in 1896. The Keeley treatment is also known as 
the “gold cure” because of the use of chloride of gold as the 
essential drug in the treatment. The method was used ex¬ 
tensively throughout the United States in various proprietary 
institutes known as Keeley Institutes, the graduates of which 
organized themselves into a national society called the 
Keeley League. 

KING, DAN (1791-1864). An American physician; born in 
Mansfield, Conn., he studied medicine there, practised at 
Preston, Conn., and afterwards removed to Charlestown, 
R. I. Dr. King was actively interested in the political 
affairs of Rhode Island, and served in the State Legislature 
from 1828 to 1834. He supported the suffrage movement, 
of which Thomas Wilson Dorr became the head; but he 
did not sanction Dorr’s headlong conduct after the suffrage 
party had failed to get control of the legislature. The 
Narragansett Indians, who were in a reduced condition, 
found an earnest helper in Dr. King. As a joint commis¬ 
sioner for the state he invesigated the condition of the 
Indians and his report resulted in the establishment of an 
Indian school. His publications include a Life and Times 
of Thomas Wilson Dorr (1859). 

KIRKBRIDE, THOMAS STORY (1809-83). American phy¬ 
sician; born in Morrisville, Bucks county, Pa., July 31; 
received his medical education at the University of Penn¬ 
sylvania. In 1832 he was made resident physician of the 
Friends’ Asylum for the Insane at Frankfort, Pa., and from 
1833 to 1835 held a similar position in the Pennsylvania 
Hospital for the Insane, Philadelphia, from 1840 till his 
death, remaining its superintendent. He was an authority 
on mental alienations, and published various important 
works on the care of the insane, including The Construction, 
Organization and General Management of Hospitals for the 
Insane (1854) ; and Appeal for the Insane (1854). He was 
the first in America to place the sexes in separate institu¬ 
tions; was one of the founders and for eight years presi¬ 
dent of the Association of Superintendents of Institutions 
for the Insane. He died December 17. 

KIRKLAND, JARED POTTER (1793-1877). An American 
naturalist; born at Wallingford, Conn., he studied medicine 
at Yale, at the same time taking lessons in botany from 
Ives, and in mineralogy and zoology from Silliman, and 
later continued his medical studies at the University of 
Pennsylvania. He practised in Durham until the death of 
his wife and daughter, in 1823, and then went to Ohio. He 


126 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


practised in Poland, Ohio; became professor of the theory 
and practise of medicine in the Ohio Medical College, and 
in 1837 an assistant on the geological survey; and from 
1843 to 1864 was professor in the Cleveland Medical Col¬ 
lege, of which he was a founder. Kirkland was a skilled 
taxidermist and an enthusiastic fruit-grower, but he is best 
known for his zoological studies. He discovered partheno¬ 
genesis in insects and the distinction of sex in the Unionidce , 
and made valuable researches on the fresh-water fishes of 
Ohio. 

KLAPROTH, MARTIN HEINRICH (1743-1817). A German 

chemist. He was born at Wernigerode, Saxony, December 
1; began life as an apothecary’s apprentice and clerk, em¬ 
ploying his leisure in acquiring a thorough knowledge of 
chemistry, and publishing a number of valuable analyses; 
made professor of chemistry at the Berlin School of Artil¬ 
lery in 1787 and at the University in 1789. He discovered 
the metals zirconium, titanium and uranium. His method 
of analysis assisted greatly the proper classification of min¬ 
erals. An enthusiastic believer in the theories of Lavoisier, 
he was made a corresponding member of the French Insti¬ 
tute. He edited a Chemical Dictionary (5 vols., 1807-10), 
wrote a Chemical Manual, and contributed a number of 
papers to the Denkschriften of the Berlin Academy. He 
was the father of Heinrich Julius von Klaproth, the 
astronomer. He died in Berlin, January 1. 

KORTUM, KARL ARNOLD (1745-1824). A German physician 
and author; born at Mulheim-on-the-Ruhr, Prussia. He 
studied and practised medicine at Duisburg, and afterwards 
at Bochum, and besides several medical works wrote Ver- 
teidigung der Alchemie (1789), also treatises on bee-culture 
and antiquarian subjects. But he is chiefly remembered as 
the author of Leben, Meinungen und Thaten von Hierony¬ 
mus Jobs dem Kandidaten (1784)—a grotesque, comical 
epic, which subsequently went through many editions under 
the title Die Jobsiade (14th ed. 1888, with the woodcuts of 
the original, an introduction, and notes), and whose popu¬ 
larity was greatly increased through the paintings of Hasen- 
clever, representing various scenes from the poem. Con¬ 
sult Deicke, Der Jobsiadendichter Karl Arnold Kortum 
(Miilheim-on-the-Ruhr, 1893). 

KRISHABER, MAURICE (1836-83). A French laryngologist. 
One of the founders of the modern treatment of diseases of 
the larynx. He was born in Hungary, and studied medicine 
at Vienna and Prague, and at Paris, where he began to prac¬ 
tise in 1864. He founded the Annales des maladies de 1 *- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


127 


oreille et du larynx (1875) \ devoted himself to nervous dis¬ 
eases ; and wrote: Des laryngopathies pendant les premieres 
phrases de la syphilis, with Mauriac (1876) ; “Sur le cancer 
du larynx,” in the Annales (1879) ; and on “Krishaber’s dis¬ 
ease”; De la neuropathie cerebro-cardiaque (1873). 

KUCHENMEISTER, GOTTLOB FRIEDRICH HEINRICH 
(1821-90). German scientist; born in Buchheim, Saxony, 
January 22; received his M.D. from Leipsic, 1846; concen¬ 
trated his attention upon the study of entozoa and the 
metamorphoses of intestinal worms, his most important 
work on the subject On the Animal and Vegetable Parasites 
of the Human Body (1855), having gone through several 
editions and been translated into English; from 1862 to 
1865 he edited the Zeitschrift des Norddeutschen Chirurgen 
Vereins; and in 1874-75, the Allgemeine Zeitschrift fur 
Epidemiologie. His main theories are found discussed in 
Parasitism; Tapeworms. 

KUSSMAUL, ADOLF (1822-1902). A German physician; born 
at Graben and educated at Heidelberg. There he was as¬ 
sistant for some time, and wrote the valuable work. Die 
Farbenerscheinungen im Grunde des menschlichen Auges 
(1845). In 1857 he was made professor at Heidelberg, and 
afterward held chairs in Erlangen (1859-63), at Freiburg 
(1863-76), and at Strassburg (1876-88). He then retired to 
Heidelberg, where he was professor emeritus until his death. 
Kussmaul devised much apparatus for use in internal thera¬ 
peutics, and in 1867 introduced the use of the stomach- 
pump. In the realms of physiology, pshychiatry, toxicology, 
and especially internal medicine, he was an able and an 
industrious investigator. Among his most important publi¬ 
cations are: Untersuchungen iiber das Seelenleben des neu- 
geborenen Menschen (3d ed. 1896) ; Ueber den konstitu- 
tionellen Merkurialismus (1861); Zwanzig Briefe iiber 
Menschenpocken und Kuhpockenimpfung (1870) ; Die Stor- 
ungen der Sprache; Versuch einer Pathologie der Sprache 
(1877), which by many is considered his most remarkable 
work, and a translation of which may be found in Ziem- 
msen Cyclopaedia of Practical Medicine (New York, 1887), 
and an interesting autobiography, Jugenderinnerungen eines 
atten Arztes (5th ed. 1902). 

L 

LACAZE-DUTHIERS, HENRI DE (1821-1901). A compara¬ 
tive anatomist; author of a series of elaborate and richly 
illustrated memoirs on mollusks, parasitic Crustacea, and the 
red coral. He was born at Montpezat, France, May 15; 


128 


A BIOGRAPH ICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


was appointed in 1865 to the chair of zoology at the Museum 
of Natural History and three years later he was called to 
the Sorbonne. Elected a member of the Academy of Science 
in 1871; he afterwards became its president. He was founder 
of the marine zoological laboratories of Roscoff and of 
Banyuls-sur-Mer, on the Mediterranean; also founder and 
editor of Archives de la zodlogie experimental. During the 
last thirty years of his life he was the animating spirit of 
French zoology. 

LAENNEC, RENE THEODORE HYACINTHE (1781-1826). In¬ 
ventor of the stethoscope; born at Quimper in Brittany; 
from 1799 an army-doctor, in 1814 became editor of the 
Journal de Medecine, and in 1816 chief physician to the 
Hospital Necker. In 1819 he published his Trait e de V 
Auscultation Mediate. See Lives by Lallour (1868) and 
Du Chatellier (1885). 

LA METTRIE, JULIEN OFFRAY DE (1709-51). A French 
physician and materialist. He was born at Saint-Malo; was 
educated at Paris, at Rheims, and under Boerhaave in Ley¬ 
den. In 1742 he became physician to the Gardes Frangaises. 
He fought at Dettingen and Fontenoy, but in 1746 was 
driven from France, and then from Leyden on account of 
his materialistic Histoire naturelle de Vame. He was well 
received by Frederick the Great, and wrote L’homme ma¬ 
chine (1748); L’homme plante (1748); and Reflexions sur 
Vorigine des animaux (1750). His Ouvrage de Penelope 
ou le Machiavel en medecine (1748), was a general attack 
on all the great scientists and physicians of his time. 

LANGENBECK, BERNARD RUDOLPH VON (1810-87). A 
German surgeon; nephew and pupil of Konrad Johann Mar¬ 
tin Langenbeck, born at Pardingbiittel. He studied at Got¬ 
tingen, then visited France and England, and, after teaching 
for some time at Gottingen, was called in 1842 to the chair 
of surgery in the University of Kiel. In 1847 he succeeded 
Dieffenbach at the Berlin Clinical Institute of Surgery. He 
soon acquired a world-wide reputation, first through skill 
and success in operations for harelip; then in plastic surgery 
of the nose, eyelids, and lip; and finally by his noted meth¬ 
ods of resection, in which the diseased or injured part only 
of a bone is removed, instead of amputation of the entire 
limb. For services in the war with Denmark, a grant of 
nobility was accorded him; and he received in 1866 the 
highest medical rank the Prussian army affords. Langen¬ 
beck was in active medical military service during the Ger¬ 
man campaigns of 1866 and 1870-71. Beginning with i860, 
Langenbeck edited, with Billroth and Gurlt, the Archiv fur 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


129 

Klinische Chirurgie, and he published, besides numerous 
papers on surgical topics, Chirurgische Beobachtungen aus 
dem Kriegl (Berlin, 1874). 

LANGENBECK, KONRAD JOHANN MARTIN (1776-1851). A 
German surgeon; born at Horneburg and educated at Jena, 
Vienna and Wurzburg. He received his degree at Gottingen 
(1802) and afterwards was appointed a professor there. He 
was famed for his swift and unerring use of the knife and 
for his success as a teacher. He edited the Bibliothek fur 
Chirurgie und Ophthalmologie (1806-28), the organ of the 
surgical and optical clinic, which he founded in 1807; and 
wrote widely on general and special surgery. 

LANKESTER, EDWIN (1814-74). An English physician. 
He was born at Melton, Leicestershire, April 23. After 
studying medicine at University College, London, and at 
Heidelberg, where he graduated in 1839, he became lecturer 
in St. George’s School of Medicine; in 1850 professor of 
New College, London; and in 1866 editor of The Journal of 
Social Science. He published Vegetable Physiology; School 
Manual of Health; and other medical works for popular use. 
He died October 30. 

LARREY, JEAN DOMINIQUE, BARON (1766-1842). French 
surgeon; born at Beaudean near Bagneres-de-Bigorre, served 
as a naval surgeon, and in 1793 joining the army, introduced 
the “flying ambulance” service. From 1797 he accompanied 
Napoleon in his campaigns, became head of the army medi¬ 
cal department, and a baron. He wrote on army surgery 
and the treatment of wounds. See German memoir by 
Werner (1885). 

LATHAM, JOHN (1740-1837). M.D. and ornithologist; born 
at Eltham, England; lived from 1796 at Romsey. 

LATHAM, ROBERT GORDON (1812-88). Ethnologist and 
philologist, was born at Billingborough vicarage, Lincoln¬ 
shire, March 24. From Eton he passed in 1829 to King’s 
College, Cambridge, of which he was elected fellow. From 
1842 (when he took his M.D.) to 1849 he held appoint¬ 
ments in London hospitals; in 1839 he became professor of 
English in University College, London, a tour of six years 
before in Denmark and Norway having directed his atten¬ 
tion to Scandinavian philology. Norway and the Norwegians 
(1840) was followed by English Language (1841), Natural 
History of the Varieties of Mankind (1850), Ethnology of 
the British Colonies (1851), Ethnology of the British Islands 
(1852), Man and his Migrations (1851), Descriptive Eth¬ 
nology (1859), Ethnology of Europe (1852), Native Races 
of the Russian Empire (1854), a new edition of Johnson’s 
9 


130 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


Dictionary (1870), Outlines of General Philology (1878). 
In Elements of Comparative Philology (1862) he advanced 
the view, since affirmed by Penka, Schrader, Isaac Taylor, 
and Sayce, that the Aryan race originated in Europe. He 
died at Putney, March 9. In 1863 he received a government 
pension of £100. See obituary by T. Watts-Dunton in 
Athenceum (March 17, 1888). 

LAURENT, AUGUSTE (1807-63). French chemist; born at 
Folie, Haute-Saome, November 14; died in Paris, April 15. 
In 1836 he became professor of the Academy of Sciences 
of Bordeaux, which post he held for eight years. In 1848 
he was made assayer to the mint and chemical adviser of 
the minister of war. His researches were very numerous, 
embracing all departments of the science, organic and in¬ 
organic, opening up new fields and new views. He was one 
of the champions of the unitary system against the dualistic, 
held by most of the chemists of the time. He was opposed 
also to the electro-chemical theory, which his investigations 
into the derivatives of naphthaline did so much to shake, 
and maintained the doctrine of types—forms of constitution 
of bodies, which admitted of parts being substituted by 
other elemental or compound substances without the type 
of the original body being altered. His views on general 
chemical theory appeared in a posthumous work entitled 
Methode de Chemie, translated into English by Odling, and 
published by the Cavendish Society, 1855. Many of his doc¬ 
trines advocated there as novelties, are now universally ac¬ 
cepted, and have become a fundamental part of modern 
chemical theory, classification, and instruction. 

LAVOISIER, ANTOINE LAURENT (1743-94). The founder 
of modern chemistry. He was born in Paris, August 26. 
To obtain means for his investigations he accepted, in 1769, 
the office of farmer-general; in 1768 he was made an Acade¬ 
mician. As director of the government powder-mills he 
discovered (1776) a way of greatly improving gunpowder; 
and in 1791 he was appointed a treasury commissioner. He 
rendered great service in the application of chemistry to 
agriculture; but his discovery of oxygen independent of 
Priestley, has been questioned. Lavoisier’s services to science 
could not save him from the rage against farmers of taxes, 
during the Reign of Terror, and he was guillotined, May 8. 
Traite Elementaire de Chimie (1789) is his masterpiece; he 
also wrote Memoires de Chimie (1805). His Complete 
Works were published in 1864-68. See Lives by Grimaux 
(1888), Berthelot (1890), and Schultze (Hamb. 1895). 
LAWRENCE, SIR WILLIAM (1783-1867). English surgeon; 


OF MFDICAI, HISTORY 


131 

born at Cirencester, became in 1815 professor of anatomy 
to the College of Surgeons, and in 1824 surgeon at St. 
Bartholomew’s. Two months before his death he was 
created a baronet. He wrote some important medical 
works. 

LAYCOCK, THOMAS (1812-76). An English physiologist, pro¬ 
fessor of the practise of physic in Edinburgh University. 
He was born in Wetherby, Yorkshire; died at Edinburgh, 
September 21. He wrote A Treatise on the Nervous Dis¬ 
eases of Women (1840), Mind and Brain (1859), etc. 

LEACH, WILLIAM ELFORD (1790-1836). An English phy¬ 
sician and naturalist; born at Plymouth, England; he died 
of cholera at the Palazzo San Sebastiano, near Tortona, 
Italy, August 25. He was assistant librarian and later as¬ 
sistant keeper of the natural-history department in the 
British Museum; noted especially for his work in ento¬ 
mology and malacology. He withdrew from the museum in 
1821. He published The Zoological Miscellany (1814-17), 
Malacostraca podophthalma Britannice, or a Monograph on 
the British Crabs, etc. (1815-16), Systematic Catalogue of 
the Specimens of the Indigenous Mammalia and Birds that 
are preserved in the British Museum, etc. (1816), A Synop¬ 
sis of the Mollusca of Great Britain, etc. (ed. by J. E. Gray, 
1852; but in part printed and circulated as early as 1820). 

LEBERT, HERMANN (1813-78). A German physician, noted 
as a pathologist; born at Breslau, Prussia, June 9; died at 
Bex, Switzerland, August 1. He practised medicine for a 
time in Paris, and was professor at Zurich in 1853-59, and 
at Breslau, 1859-74. He wrote Physiologie pathologique 
(1845), Anatomie pathologique (1854-62), Allgemeine Path¬ 
ologic (1865), etc. 

LE CONTE, JOHN LAWRENCE (1825-83). American ento¬ 
mologist; born at New York, May 13; died in Philadelphia, 
November 15. He was a nephew of Lewis Le Conte. He 
was graduated from Mount St. Mary’s College (Emmits- 
burg Medical) in 1842, from the College of Physicians and 
Surgeons in 1846, became a surgeon of volunteers in the 
Federal army in 1862, and was later made medical inspector 
of the United States army, with rank of lieutenant-colonel. 
In 1873 he was chosen to the presidency of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science. He was gen¬ 
erally recognized as an important authority on entomology, 
and published on that subject: Classification of the Coleop- 
tera of North America (1862-73) ; List of the Coleoptera of 
North America (1866); and New Species of North Ameri¬ 
can Coleoptera (1866-73). 


132 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


LEE, FRANCIS (1661-1719). An English physician and 
scholar; born at Cobham, in Surrey, March 12, and died at 
Gravelines, Flanders, August 23. He was a graduate of St. 
John’s College, Oxford, and especially noted for his knowl¬ 
edge of Oriental literature. He was a voluminous writer. 

LEGRAND, DU SAULLE HENRI (1830-86). A French alien¬ 
ist. He was born at Dijon, studied medicine there, was 
interne at Rouen and at Charenton; was associate editor of 
the Gazette des hopitaux (1854-62) ; and in 1862 became 
doctor of medicine with a thesis De la monomanie incen- 
diaire. He was an associate of Lasegne at the prefecture of 
police, Paris; was physician at the Salpetriere (1877), and 
chief physician of the special infirmary for the insane at the 
prefecture of police, Paris (1883). He was long editor of 
the Annales medico-psychologiques. His principal works 
were: La folie devant les tribunaux (1869); an essay on 
Le delire des persecutions (1871); Etude medico-legale sur 
les epileptiques (1877); and Traite de medecine legale 
(1886). 

LEIDY, JOSEPH (1823-91). An American naturalist; born 
in Philadelphia, September 9. He was graduated from the 
medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 
1844. In 1845 he became professor to the chair of anatomy 
of the same school, and in 1846 demonstrator of anatomy 
in Franklin Medical College. In 1853 Dr. Eeidy was made 
professor of anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania and 
in 1871 he was called to the professorship of natural history 
in Swarthmore College, which position he held till 1884. 
On the establishment of the department of biology in the 
University of Pennsylvania in 1884, Dr. Eeidy became its 
director. He held this office to the time of his death. He 
was a member of numerous scientific societies, and published 
some 800 papers on biological subjects. His principal works 
are Memoir on the Extinct Species of the American Ox; 
A Flora and Fauna within Living Animals; Ancient Fauna 
of Nebraska; On the Extinct Sloth Tribe of North America; 
Cretaceous Reptiles of the United States; The Extinct Mam¬ 
malian Fauna of Dakota and Nebraska; On the Fossil 
Horse; Parasites of the Termites; The Tapeworm in Birds; 
and Extinct Vertebrate Fauna of Western Territories. He 
was also the author of An Elementary Text-Book on Human 
Anatomy (1861). The value of his scientific work was sub¬ 
stantially recognized by the council of the Boston Society of 
Natural History, which awarded him the Walker prize. On 
account of the extraordinary merit of his researches, the 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 133 

prize, which usually consists of the sum of $500, was on 
this occasion increased to $1,000. He died April 30. 

LEIGHTON, ALEXANDER (1568-1649). A Scottish physi¬ 
cian and divine; born in Scotland. He was a fierce opponent 
of Romanism, and was fined, mutilated, and imprisoned 
(1630-40), for his attack upon the Episcopacy and the 
Queen, and released and recompensed with a gift of i6,ooo 
by the Long Parliament. He wrote Speculum Belli Sacri, 
or the Looking Glass of War (1624), and An Appeal to the 
Parliament, or Sion’s Plea against the Prelacie (1628). 

LESTOCQ, COUNT JOHANN HERMANN VON (1692-1767). 
A surgeon at the Russian court, a favorite and counsellor 
of the Empress Elizabeth, 1741-48. He was born at Celle, 
Prussia, April 29; died June 23. 

LEURET, FRANCOIS (1797-1851). A French physician; born 
in Nancy. He made a special study of the treatment of the 
insane and ultimately became director of the asylum at 
Bicetre. His works include: De la frequence du pouls chez 
les alienes (1832), with Mitivie; Fragments psychologiques 
sur la folie (1834) 1 Anatomie comparee an systeme nerveux 
O839-58), completed by Gratiolet; and Du traitement moral 
de la folie (1840). 

LEVER, CHARLES (1806-72). Novelist; born in Dublin, 
August 31, graduated at Trinity College in 1827, and 
then went to Gottingen to study medicine. His most popu¬ 
lar work, Charles O’Malley, is a reflex of his own college 
life in Dublin. About 1829 he spent some time in the back- 
woods of Canada and North America, and embodied his 
experiences in Con Cregan and Arthur O’Leary. He prac¬ 
tised medicine at various Irish country towns, and in 1840 
at Brussels, having ere this written Harry Lorrequer (1840) 
and Charles O’Malley (1841) for the Dublin University 
Magazine. Returning to Dublin, he published Jack Hinton 
in 1843, and from 1842 to 1845 acted as editor of the Dub¬ 
lin University Magazine, and wrote Arthur O’Leary, Tom 
Burke of Ours, and The O’Donoghue. In 1845 he again went 
to Brussels, Bonn, Carlsruhe, where he published the 
Knight of Gwynne, and Florence, where he wrote Roland 
Cashel. At Spezzia, Luttrel of Arran, Con Cregan, Sir 
Jasper Car eve, and The Dodd Family Abroad were produced 
in rapid succession. Then, completely changing his style, 
he wrote the Fortunes of Glencore, followed by The Martins 
of Cro-Martin, and The Daltons. Lever was in 1852 ap¬ 
pointed British vice-consul at Spezzia, and continued to 
write, publishing Davenport Dunn, One of Them, Gerald 


134 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

Fitzgerald, A Day’s Ride, Sir Brook Fosbrooke, That Boy 
of Norcott’s, and some racy essays in Blackwood’s by “Cor¬ 
nelius O’Dowd.” In 1867 he was promoted to the consul¬ 
ship at Trieste, where he died June 1. It is by his brilliant, 
rollicking sketches of a phase of Irish life which was pass¬ 
ing away that Lever lives, and by Hablot K. Browne’s 
illustrations to his novels. No doubt he created a false idea 
of Irish society and of the Irish character; his caricatures 
have been taken as accurate representations. There is a poor 
Memoir by Fitzpatrick (1879; new ed. 1896); his daughter 
edited his novels (37 vols., 1897-99). 

LEWIN, GEORG RICHARD (1820-96). A German physician; 
born at Sondershausen, he studied medicine in Berlin, Halle, 
Leipzig, Heidelberg, Vienna, and Paris, and was made pro¬ 
fessor of dermatology at Berlin in 1868. He was best known 
by his novel treatment of laryngitis and of syphilis, as set 
forth in Die Inhalationstherapie in Krankheiten der Respira- 
tionsorgane (2d ed. 1865), and Die Behandlung der Syphilis 
durch subkutane Sublimatinjektion. 

LEWIS, DIO (1823-86). An American physician. He was 
born at Auburn, N. Y., March 3; studied at Harvard Medical 
School, and practised for a time at Port Byron, N. Y., and at 
Buffalo. He founded an institution for training teachers, 
at Boston in 1863, and in 1864, at Lexington, Mass., he estab¬ 
lished a school for young ladies. He published numerous 
works on health and hygiene, and wrote a great deal on edu¬ 
cation and gymnastics as an element in educational training. 
His death occurred May 21, at Yonkers, N. Y. 

LEYBOURN, WILLIAM (1626-1700). An English surgeon 
and mathematician. He was the author with Vincent Wing, 
of the first English treatise on astronomy, Urania Practica 
(1648). He also published Planometria (1650: republished 
as The Complete Surveyor 1653), Arithmetick, Vulgar, Deci¬ 
mal, and Instrumental (1657), Census Mathematicus (1690), 
Panarithmologia, the earliest English ready reckoner (1693), 
etc. 

LEYDEN, JOHN (1775-1811). Poet and orientalist; born a 
shepherd’s son, at Denholm, Roxburgshire, September 8. 
He entered Edinburgh University in 1790, and was licensed 
as a preacher in 1798. He helped Scott to gather materials 
for his Border Minstrelsy, especially for the essay on fairy 
superstitions. He was also a contributor to Lewis’s Tales 
of Wonder. His first prose work was Discoveries of 
Europeans in Northern and Western Africa (1799). His 
translations and poems in the Edinburgh Magazine attracted 
attention; and Scenes of Infancy, descriptive of Teviotdale, 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


135 


was completed in 1803. In that year he sailed for India as 
assistant-surgeon at Madras; was surgeon and naturalist on 
the survey of Mysore and Travancore (1804) ; resided for 
a time at Penang; was professor in the Bengal College, and 
afterwards judge, commissioner of the Court of Requests, 
and assay-master of the mint at Calcutta. Meanwhile he 
translated the Gospels into five languages. He accompanied 
Lord Minto as interpreter to Java, and died of fever at 
Batavia, August 27. His ballads have taken a higher place 
than his longer poems. He knew thirty-four languages or 
dialects, and wrote a preliminary dissertation to the Com- 
playnt of Scotland (1801), an essay on Indo-Chinese lan¬ 
guages and literature, Memoirs of Baber (completed by Ers- 
kine, 1826), and Malay Annals (1821). See his Poetical 
Remains (1819) ; Poems and Ballads, with reprint of Memoir 
by Scott (1875)» and Poetical works, with Memoir by T. 
Brown (1875). 

LIEBIG, JUSTUS FREIHERR VON (1803-73). Chemist; 
born at Darmstadt, May 12, he studied at Bonn and Er¬ 
langen, and in 1822 went to Paris, where Gay-Lussac took 
him into his laboratory. In 1824 he became professor of 
chemistry at Giessen, and in 1852 at Munich. He died April 
18, having in 1845 been created Baron. Liebig was one of 
the most illustrious chemists of his age; equally great in 
method and in practical application, he made his mark in 
organic chemistry, animal chemistry, the doctrine of alcohols, 
etc. He was the founder of agricultural chemistry, and a dis¬ 
coverer of chloroform and chloral. As inventor of extract of 
beef and prepared infant food his name is known throughout 
the world. By him an admirable chemical laboratory—prac¬ 
tically the first—was established at Giessen. He vastly ex¬ 
tended the method of organic analysis, and invented appli¬ 
ances for analysis by combustion and Liebig’s condenser. 
His most important treatises, mostly translated into English, 
were on the analysis of organic bodies (1837), Animal 
Chemistry (1842), Organic Chemistry (1843), Researches on 
Flesh and its Preparation (1847), Agricultural Chemistry 
(1855), Chemische Briefe (1844); besides numerous papers 
in scientific journals (317 in the Royal Society’s Transac¬ 
tions). See four volumes of his Correspondence (1884-92), 
and English Lives by A. W. Hofmann (1876) and W. A. 
Shenstone (1895). 

LINACRE, THOMAS (about 1460-1524). Bom at Canter¬ 
bury, he studied at Oxford, was elected fellow of All-Souls’ 
in 1484, and went to Italy, where he learned Greek, and took 
his M.D. at Padua. About 1501 Henry VII made him tutor 


136 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


to Prince Arthur. As King’s physician to Henry VII and 
Henry VIII he practised in London; he also founded the 
Royal College of Physicians. Late in life he took orders. 
He died October 20. Linacre was one of the earliest cham¬ 
pions of the New Learning. He translated several of 
Galen’s works into Latin, and wrote some grammatical 
treatises. See Life by Dr. Noble Johnson (1835). 

LIND, JAMES (1736-1812). Scotch physician and scientist. 
He settled at Windsor about 1777, and is mentioned by 
Madame D’Arblay and Shelley. 

LINDSLEY, JOHN BERRIEN (1822-9 7 ). American educator. 
He was born at Princeton, N. J., October 24; died Decem¬ 
ber 7. He graduated from the University of Nashville in 
1839 and received his degree in medicine at the University 
of Pennsylvania. Studying theology, he was ordained to the 
Presbyterian ministry in 1846 and preached for several years. 
He became professor of chemistry in the University of 
Nashville in 1850, and was chancellor of the institution 
i 8S3-73- He was likewise professor of chemistry in the 
University of Tennessee, 1880-97, and of materia medica in 
the Tennessee College of Pharmacy, 1896-97. He published 
Our Ruin, its Causes and Cure (1868) ; The Military Annals 
of Tennessee (1886). 

LISTON, ROBERT (1794-1847). Scotch surgeon; born at 
Ecclesmachan manse, Linlithgow, October 28, he studied at 
Edinburgh and London, and settled at Edinburgh in 1818 as 
lecturer on surgery and anatomy. His surgical skill soon 
won him a European reputation; in 1835 he became pro¬ 
fessor of clinical surgery at University College, London. He 
died December 7. His chief works are Elements of Surgery 
(1831) and Practical Surgery (1837). 

LIZARS, JOHN (about 1787-1860). An Edinburgh surgeon; 
brother of the Wilkie-like painter and engraver, William 
Home Lizars (1788-1859). (Originally Lizzers, modified to 
Lizahrs.) 

LONG, CRAWFORD W. (1815-78). American physician. Dis¬ 
coverer of anaesthesia; born in Danielsville, Ga., November 
1; he graduated from Franklin College, Georgia, in 1835, 
and from the medical department of the University of Penn¬ 
sylvania in 1839. From that date he practised in Jefferson, 
Ga., until 1851, when he removed to Athens, Ga. On March 
30, 1842, he used ether as an anaesthetic during an operation 
for the removal of a tumor from the neck of James W. 
Venable, a young man of twenty. This was more than 
two years prior to any operation under anaesthesia by any 
other physician, the earliest of such other operations being 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


137 


one performed by Dr. Horace Wells (without knowledge, 
however, of Dr. Long’s prior operation), in December, 1844, 
when nitrous-oxide gas was used as the anaesthetic agent. 
Dr. Long performed other operations under anaesthesia on 
July 3, 1842; September 9, 1843, and January 8, 1845, hut 
he did not publish his discovery until 1849, by which time 
several other physicians, including Horace Wells, William 
T. G. Morton, Charles T. Jackson, and James Y. Simpson, 
had independently adopted the practise of anaesthesia during 
surgical operations. In 1854 Dr. Long was named, with 
Wells, Morton, and Jackson in a bill before the United 
States Senate, to reward the probable discoverers of prac¬ 
tical anaesthesia. He died at Athens, Ga., June 16. 

LOOMIS, ALFRED LEBBEUS (1831-95). An American phy¬ 
sician; born at Bennington, Vermont, June 10. He grad¬ 
uated from Union College in 1851, and received the degree 
of M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New 
York, in 1853; devoted himself to the study and cure of 
pulmonary diseases; he soon won a national reputation. 
Was visiting physician to Bellevue Hospital in i860, and to 
Mount Sinai Hospital in 1874; in 1867 professor of pathol¬ 
ogy and practise of medicine at the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, to which a friend of his donated $100,000 
for the founding of a Loomis laboratory; president of the 
New York Pathological and Medical societies, of the New 
York Academy of Medicine (1890-92), and of the College 
of American Physicians and Surgeons (1894). He died 
January 23. His best-known books are Lessons in Physical 
Diagnosis (1877) ; Diseases of the Respiratory Organs, Heart 
and Kidneys (1876) ; Lectures on Fevers (1882); Diseases 
of Old Age (1882) ; A Text-Book of Practical Medicine 
(1884). 

LORETA, COUNT PIETRO (1831-89). An Italian surgeon; 
born in Ravenna, and educated at Bologna. In 1861 he was 
made astronomical prosector of Calori at Bologna. In 1865 
he took charge of the surgical clinic and in 1868 became 
professor of surgery in the University of Bologna. A 
famous surgeon, he is best known for his device for dila¬ 
tation of the pylorus for cancer. Loreta wrote: Nuovo 
metodo di cistatomia perineale; Nuovo metodo di cura degli 
aneurismi; La divulsione digitale del piloro; La divulsione 
instrumentale del cardia, and La resezione del fegato. 

LORINSER, KARL IGNAZ (1796-1853)- A German physi¬ 
cian; born at Niemes, Northern Bohemia. After studying 
at the universities of Prague and Berlin, he was appointed 
a lecturer at Berlin in 1818, and a member of the College 


I38 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

of Medicine at Stettin in 1822. From 1824 to 1850 he 
was a councilor in the Prussian Government service. In 
the study of epidemics, he traveled through Hungary, Tran¬ 
sylvania and Galicia. His works, Untersuchungen iiber die 
Rinderpest (1831) and Die Pest des Orients (1837), deal 
with these investigations. His Zum Schultz der Gesundheit 
in den Schulen (1836; new ed. 1861) effected a revival 
of gymnastics in German schools. His autobiography ap¬ 
peared in 1864. 

LOZIER, CLEMENCE SOPHIA, nee HARNED (1812-88). 

American physician; born at Plainfield, N. J., December 11; 
died in New York, April 26. In 1829 she was married to A. 
W. Lozier; in 1849 began the study of medicine, and in 
1853 was graduated from the Syracuse Medical College. She 
entered practise in New York, and there had great success 
as a surgeon. The New York medical college and hospital 
for women was founded through her efforts, and for many 
years she was a professor in that institution and dean of its 
faculty. She was also for four years president of the Na¬ 
tional Woman Suffrage Society. She was a prominent 
woman suffragist and active in reform and philanthropic 
movements. 

LUDWIG, KARL FRIEDRICH WILHELM (1816-95). A Ger¬ 
man physiologist; born at Witzenhausen, Hesse, December 
29. He was appointed professor of comparative anatomy 
at Marburg in 1846; professor of physiology at Zurich 
(1849-55); at Vienna (1855); and at Leipsic (1865). His 
investigations in anatomical physiology place him in the 
front rank of that department of science. His chief work 
is Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen (1852-55) ; but 
his Arbeiten aus der Physiologischen Anstalt zu Leipzig and 
his essays contain valuable contributions to physiology. He 
died April 25. 

LUSK, WILLIAM THOMPSON (1838-97). An American phy¬ 
sician and surgeon. He was born at Norwich, Conn., 
May 23; remained one year at Yale, and then went to 
Heidelberg and Berlin to study medicine (1858-61) ; served 
in the Union army from 1861 to 1863; received his M.D. 
from Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1864; pursued 
post-graduate studies in Edinburgh, Paris, Vienna, and 
Prague; returned to New York City in 1865 and began 
practising, making a specialty of obstetrics and diseases of 
women; was successively lecturer on physiology at Harvard 
(1871) ; professor of obstetrics and diseases of women in 
Bellevue Hospital Medical College (1871); and visiting 
physician at the same hospital (1871); co-editor of the 


OB' MEDICAL HISTORY 


139 


New York Medical Journal (1871-72). His most important 
book, The Science and Art of Midwifery (1882), has gone 
through many editions in several languages. 

LUYS, JULES BERNARD (1828-95). French physician; born 
in Paris, August 17; and received his M.D. from the 
Paris School of Medicine in 1857. He was city hospital 
physician in 1862; physician-in-chief of the Ivry Sanatorium 
and was elected a member of the Academy of Medicine 
in 1871. He made a specialty of the study and cure 
of nervous diseases, and diseases of the brain, his 
leading works include Recherches sur le Systeme Nerveux 
Cerebro Spinal (1864, with 40 folio pages of drawings from 
life) ; Inconographie Photographique des Centres Nerveux 
(1872-74; illustrated) ; Etudes de Physiologie et de Pathol- 
ogie Celebrale (1874) ; Le Cerveau et ses Fonctions (3d 
ed. 1878; illustrated) ; Traite Clinique et Pratique des Mala¬ 
dies Mentales, received the Lallemand prize by the Academy 
of Medicine (1881); Hypnotisme Experimental (1890). 

LUZENBERG, CHARLES ALOYSIUS (1805-58). American 
physician; born at Verona, Italy. Leaving Italy for the 
United States in his 14th year, he subsequently received a 
medical education at Jefferson Medical College of Philadel¬ 
phia. He removed to New Orleans in 1829, where he made 
a reputation for brilliant surgery and was enabled to estab¬ 
lish the famous New Orleans Medical School. He visited 
Paris in 1832, where his reputation had preceded him, and he 
was elected corresponding member of the Paris Academy. 
His most important work in Louisiana, were he took up his 
residence again in 1834, was the founding of the Society of 
Natural History (1839), and the Louisiana Medico-Chirur- 
gical Society (1843) by which science has been much fos¬ 
tered and promoted in the South. 

M 

MacCULLOCH, JOHN (1773-1835). Geologist; born in 
Guernsey, October 6, studied medicine at Edinburgh, and 
became an army surgeon. In 1811 he was employed in 
geological researches in Scotland; in 1820 became physician 
to Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (king of the Belgians) ; and 
was finally professor of Chemistry and Geology at Addis- 
combe. He died August 21. He wrote Description of the 
Western Islands of Scotland (1819); Geological Classifi¬ 
cation of Rocks (1821) ; System of Geology (1831); Malaria 
(1827), and Remittent and Intermittent Diseases (1828). 

M’GRIGOR, SIR JAMES (1771-1858). An army surgeon; 


140 a BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

knighted in 1814. He was born at Cromdale, Inverness-shire, 
and died in London. See his unfinished Autobiography 
(1861). 

McHENRY, JAMES (1785-1845). American physician and 
author; born at Larne, Ireland, December 20; died there, 
July 21. He was educated in Dublin and Glasgow, and in 
1817 emigrated to the United States and finally settled in 
Philadelphia, where he practised medicine and was engaged 
in mercantile business. In 1842 he was appointed United 
States counsel at Londonderry, and held that post until his 
death. Among his works are: The Usurper: an Historical 
Tragedy (played in Philadelphia, 1820) ; O’Halloran, or the 
Insurgent (1824) ; The Betrothed of Wyoming (2d ed. 
1830) ; etc. 

MCCLELLAN, GEORGE (1796-1847). Surgeon; born at 
Woodstock, Conn., December 23, died in Philadelphia, Pa., 
May 9. He was graduated at Yale in 1816. A fondness 
for natural science, developed under the influence of the 
elder Silliman, led him to adopt medicine as his profession, 
and he began his studies in New Haven under Dr. Thomas 
Hubbard, but was graduated at the medical department of 
the University of Pennsylvania in 1819. Even before he 
obtained his degree, he was elected resident physician to 
the hospital of the Philadelphia almshouse. During his first 
year of practise he performed the most important opera¬ 
tions in surgery, such as lithotomy, extraction of the lens 
for cataract, and extirpation of the lower jaw. He opened 
a dissecting-room, and gave private courses of lectures, both 
on anatomy and surgery, and his class soon became so mt 
merous as to require a larger room for their accommodation. 
His success was so great that he conceived the idea of 
founding a medical college, and with others he obtained 
from the legislature of Pennsylvania, in 1825, a charter for 
Jefferson Medical College. In 1826 he began his public 
lectures, as professor of surgery in the new college, which, 
notwithstanding the opposition of the profession, and diffi¬ 
culty in obtaining a faculty, grew so rapidly that in ten 
years the students numbered 360. In 1838 the faculty was 
reorganized, but without Dr. McClellan’s name, and this 
action led to his immediately procuring the incorporation 
of the medical department of Pennsylvania college. His 
lectures in connection with the new institution began in 
November, 1839, and continued until the spring of 1843. 
He was the originator of the extended system of medical 
education as it now exists in this country, and the clinical 
instruction of the college was originated by him. He ac- 


OP MEDICAL HISTORY 


141 

quired one of the largest practises known in the United 
States, and his reputation extended to Europe, while he 
attracted patients from all parts of this country, the West 
Indies, and South America. As a surgeon, he performed 
almost every capital operation known, together with many 
others that were original with himself. He was specially 
eminent in ophthalmic surgery and for his operations for 
cataract and other diseases of the eye, and he was among 
the first to extract the lens. Other operations, now quite 
common, were not used in the United States until per¬ 
formed by him, and he shares with Valentine Mott, of 
New York, and John C. Warren, of Boston, the credit of 
establishing many procedures new in this country. He did 
more than any other surgeon, by the number and success 
of his operations, to establish completely, as safe and feasi¬ 
ble, the removal of the parotid gland. 

MACKENZIE, SIR MORELL (1837-92). An English physi¬ 
cian and specialist on throat diseases. He was born at 
Leytonstone, Essex, July 7, and educated at the London 
University, in Paris, and in Budapest, where he met Czer- 
mak, the Bohemian physiologist, who showed him the use 
of the laryngoscope, which Mackenzie later introduced into 
London. He returned to England, and in 1863 founded the 
Hospital for Diseases of the Throat, Golden Square; in the 
same year he obtained the Jacksonian prize from the Royal 
College of Surgeons for his essay on diseases of the larynx. 
He was soon afterward elected assistant physician to the 
London Hospital, becoming, in 1873, head physician, and 
was appointed lecturer on diseases of the throat, which posi¬ 
tion he held until his death. He was a corresponding mem¬ 
ber of the Imperial Royal Society of Physicians of Vienna, 
and of the Medical Society of Prague, and an honorary 
fellow of the American Laryngological Association. Dr. 
Mackenzie was the author of numerous publications on 
laryngological subjects; among them, a systematic treatise, 
in two volumes, on Diseases of the Throat and Nose (1880) 
and The Hygiene of the Vocal Organs (1886). He was 
knighted in 1887 by Queen Victoria, for his services in pro¬ 
longing the life of the late Emperor Frederick of Germany. 
He died in London, February 13. 

MADDEN, RICHARD ROBERT (1798-1886). An Irish doc¬ 
tor, who traveled much, and wrote much. See Memoirs by 
his son (1891). 

MAGENDIE, FRANCOIS (1783-1855). French physiologist 
and physician; born at Bordeaux. He became prosector in 
anatomy (1804), physician to the Hotel-Dieu in Paris, and 


142 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


professor of Anatomy in the College de France (1831). He 
made important additions to our knowledge of nerve-physi¬ 
ology, the veins, and the physiology of food, and wrote 
numerous works, including the Elements of Physiology. In 
his Journal de la Physiologie Experimental are recorded 
the experiments on living animals, which gained for him 
the character of an unscrupulous vivisector. ( Mazhongdee .) 

MALPIGHI, MARCELLO (1628-94). Italian anatomist, was 
professor at Pisa, Messina, and Bologna, and from 1691 
chief physician to Pope Innocent XII. A pioneer in 
microscopic anatomy, animal and vegetable, he wrote a series 
of works on his discoveries. 

MANDEVILLE, BERNARD (1670-1733). Satirist; born at 
Dort in Holland; he took his M.D. at Leyden in 1691, and 
immediately settled in London in medical practise, and 
died there. He is known as the author of a short work 
in doggerel verse originally entitled The Grumbling Hive 
(^OS)* and finally The Fable of the Bees (1723). Writing 
in a vein of acute paradox, he affirms that “private vices are 
public benefits,” and that every species of virtue is at bottom 
some form of gross selfishness, more or less modified. The 
book was condemned by the grand jury of Middlesex, and 
was attacked by Law the nonjuror, by Berkeley, Brown, 
Warburton, Hutcheson, and others. Other works in an un¬ 
pleasant tone are The Virgin Unmasked, Free Thoughts on 
Religion, etc. 

MANTELL, GIDEON ALGERNON (1790-1852). Palaeontolo¬ 
gist; born at Lewes, practised as a doctor there and at 
Brighton, Clapham, and London, where he died. He wrote 
67 works and memoirs, most geological. Very important 
were his investigation of the Wealden fossils and his dis¬ 
covery of four great dinosaurians. 

MARCET, JANE, nee HALDIMAND (1769-1858). Born at 
Geneva, the daughter of a rich Swiss London merchant, in 
1799 she married Alexander Marcet (1780-1822), a Gene¬ 
van, who had just started a medical practise in London, 
and became lecturer on chemistry at Guy’s Hospital. Be¬ 
sides Conversations on Chemistry (1806; 16th ed. 1853), 
through which Faraday made his first acquaintance with the 
subject, she wrote Conversations on Political Economy 
(1816; 7th ed. 1839), which was warmly praised by J. B. 
Say, MacCulloch, and Lord Macaulay; Conversations on 
Natural Philosophy (1819; 14th ed. 1872), and similar books 
on botany, vegetable physiology, etc., besides really charm¬ 
ing Stories for very Little Children. See Harriet Mar- 
tineau’s Biographical Sketches (1869). 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


143 


MARTIN, HENRY AUSTIN (1824-84). American surgeon; 
born at London, July 23; died in Boston, December 7. He 
came to the United States at an early age and was graduated 
from the medical school at Harvard in 1845, when he es¬ 
tablished a practise in Boston. He served as a surgeon 
until nearly the close of the Civil War, when he resigned 
and was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for gallant service. He 
devoted his attention principally to surgery and to the treat¬ 
ment of smallpox, upon which subject he was a generally 
recognized authority. He was the originator of many im¬ 
portant innovations in the field of surgery and published 
valuable professional articles in periodicals. He was a mem¬ 
ber of the International Medical Congress, held at London 
in 1881, where he delivered a paper explaining a method of 
treatment which he had originated and which commanded 
much favorable attention. 

MAYER, JULIUS ROBERT VON (1814-78). Physicist; born 
at Heilbronn, November 25; studied medicine at Tubin¬ 
gen, Munich, and Paris, and settled as physician in his 
native town in 1841. In 1842 he published a preliminary 
statement of the mechanical theory of heat (worked out 
independently by Joule), and in 1845 restated his views with 
a great wealth of illustration, forecasting also the meteoric 
origin of the sun’s heat. He was ennobled by the king of 
Wiirtemberg two years before his death, on March 20. 
Mayer’s papers are collected as Mechanik der Wdrme (2d 
ed. 1874), and his Correspondence appeared in 1889. See 
monographs by Duhring (1879) and Weyrauch (1889). 

MEAD, RICHARD (1673-1754). An English physician. He 
was.born at Stepney, and at an early age entered the uni¬ 
versity at Utrecht. After three years study he went to Ley¬ 
den, where he entered upon the study of medicine under 
the noted professors, Pitcairne and Hermann. Having taken 
his degree of doctor of philosophy and physics, he returned 
to Stepney and began the practise of his profession in 1696. 
In 1703 Dr. Mead was made a member of the Royal Society, 
and a lecturer at St. Thomas’ Hospital. His reputation 
both as a practitioner and as a writer on medical subjects was 
very great, and he was in constant correspondence with the 
most eminent scientists of the day in his own and foreign 
countries. He received the appointment of physician-in-or¬ 
dinary to George II., and in 1716 was elected a fellow of 
the College of Physicians. In addition to his acquirements 
as a physician, Dr. Mead devoted much time to the study 
of natural history, antiquarianism, and numismatics. He 
was an intimate friend of Bently, Pope, and Johnson. His 


144 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


works were first published in Latin, and subsequently trans¬ 
lated into English, French and Italian. They include A 
Mechanical Account of Poisons (1702) and Monita et 
Prcecepta Medic a (1751). 

MESMER, FRIEDRICH ANTON or Franz (1734-1815). The 
founder of mesmerism; born near Constance, May 23. He 
was bred for the priesthood, but studied medicine at Vienna, 
and about 1772 took up the opinion that there exists a power 
of extraordinary medicinal influence on the human body, 
which he called animal magnetism. In 1778 he went to 
Paris, where he created a great sensation. He refused an 
annual pension of 20,000 livres to reveal the secret; but in 
1785 a commission of physicians and scientists (Bailly, Frank¬ 
lin, Lavoiser, etc.) reported on him unfavorably. He fell 
into disrepute, and after a visit to England, spent the rest 
of his life in obscurity at Meersburg in Switzerland. He 
died March 5. See Life by Kerner (Frankf. 1856), and 
Graham’s Mesmer the Magnetiser (1890). 

MEYER, LOTHAR JULIUS (1830-95). A German chemist. 
He was born in Varel, Oldenburg; studied medicine in 
Zurich and Wurzburg, and chemistry at Heidelberg, where 
in 1857, he made the discovery, by a simple analysis, that 
the taking up of oxygen by the blood is not accomplished 
by the air, but results from the chemical affinity between 
oxygen and the coloring matter of the blood. This view, 
published in Die Gase des Blutes (1857), was supplemented 
by the study of De Sanguine Oxydo Carbonico Infecto 
(1858). In 1859 he became professor in the chemical labora¬ 
tory in Breslau; in 1866 he became professor at Eberswalde; 
and in 1868 at Karlsruhe, whence in 1876 he went to Tubin¬ 
gen. Meyer wrote, besides some important monographs on 
educational methods, Die modernen Theorien der Chemie 
1864; 6th ed., partially, 1896), and Die atomgewichte der 
Elemente (with Seubert, 1883). 

MILLER, EDWARD (1760-1812). An American physician; 
born in Dover, Del.; he graduated at the medical department 
of the University of Pennsylvania in 1784, and in 1797, asso¬ 
ciated with Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell and Elihu H. Smith, 
he founded the Medical Repository, the American journal of 
medicine. He was professor of medicine in New York, 
and enjoyed a high reputation both in this country and 
abroad. His writings, with a Memoir by his brother, Samuel 
Miller, were published in New York in 1814. 

MITCHELL, JOHN (?-i768). An Anglo-American physi¬ 
cian. He settled at Urbana, Va., about 1700, and gained 
recognition as a botanist. It was after him that the 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


145 


Mitchella repens was named by Linnaeus. He wrote, among 
various works: Nova Plantarum Genera (1741); and an 
Essay on the Causes of Different Colors of People in Differ¬ 
ent Climates (1744) ; but his name is best known in con¬ 
nection with A Map of the British and French Dominion 
in North America (1755), which was credited to him and 
was once standard. 

MITCHELL, JOHN KEARSLEY (1798-1858). An American 
physician; born at Shepherdstown, Va. He went to Scot¬ 
land as a child and studied in Ayr and Edinburgh. After 
his return to the United States he graduated at the medical 
college of the University of Pennsylvania in 1819. Before 
he settled in Philadelphia, in 1822, as general practitioner, 
he made three voyages to the Far East as ship’s surgeon. 
In 1826 he became professor of medicine and physiology at 
the Philadelphia Medical Institute, and in 1833, professor of 
chemistry at the Franklin Institute. From 1841 to 1858 he 
was professor of the theory and practise of medicine in 
Jefferson Medical College. Besides contributions to scien¬ 
tific and medical periodicals his works include: Saint 
Helena, A Poem by a Yankee (1821) ; On the Wisdom, 
Goodness and Power of God as Illustrated in the Properties 
of Water (1834) ; Indecision, a Tale of the Far West, and 
Other Poems (1839); On the Cryptogamous Origin of 
Malarious and Epidemic Fevers (1849) ; and the posthumous 
Five Essays of Various Chemical and Medical Subjects 
(1858) brought out by his son, S. Weir Mitchell. 

MITCHELL, SAMUEL LATHAM (1764-1831). A scientist 
of universal attainments. He was born in North Hemp¬ 
stead, Long Island, N. Y., August 20; studied medicine in 
Hempstead and graduated at the University of Edinburgh; 
on his return, studied law; in 1790 he was elected to the 
New York legislature, and in 1792 became professor of 
chemistry and natural philosophy at Columbia College, New 
York City. In 1794 he made a mineralogical survey of the 
State of New York, and in 1797 was one of the founders 
of the Medical Repository, which he edited for sixteen years. 
In 1798, in the face of strong opposition, he advocated 
granting to Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton ex¬ 
clusive steam-navigation rights, and was one of the party 
making the first trip in the “Clermont” in 1807. In 1801 
he retired from his college professorship, and from Decem¬ 
ber 1, 1801, until November 22, 1804, served as a Democrat 
representative in Congress. Thereafter he was appointed 
to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, and held that 
office until March 3, 1809. From 1820 to 1826 he was pro- 
10 


146 A biographical cyclopedia 

fessor of botany and materia medica in the New York Col¬ 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons; became connected with 
various learned societies, corresponded with Joseph Priestly, 
and for his researches on fishes won the approbation of 
Cuvier. He made numerous contributions to scientific 
periodicals, including The London Philosophical Magazine; 
The New York Medical Repository; and The American 
Mineralogical Journal. He died in New York City, Sep¬ 
tember 7. 

MOLESCHOTT, JAKOB (1822-93). Physiologist; born at 
Bois-le-Duc in Holland, August 9; studied medicine at 
Heidelberg, and taught there physiology, anatomy, and an¬ 
thropology from 1847 until 1854, when he resigned, the uni¬ 
versity having “warned” him on account of the materialistic 
tendency of his writings. In 1856 he became professor of 
Physiology at Zurich, in 1861 at Turin, and in 1878 at Rome, 
where he died May 20. He wrote some twenty works, in 
German and Italian, including one on the Natural History 
of Man and Animals (1855). See his autobiographical Fur 
meine Freunde (1894). 

MOORE, JOHN (1729-1802). Born at Stirling, England, a 
minister’s son, studied medicine and practised in Glas¬ 
gow, traveled with the young Duke of Hamilton (1772-78), 
and then settled in London. His View of Society in France, 
Switzerland, Germany, and Italy (1779-81) was well re¬ 
ceived; but the novel Zeluco (1789), which suggested 
Byron’s Childe Harold, is to-day the least forgotten of his 
works. These include two other novels, Medical Sketches, 
and books on the French Revolution. Moore died at Rich¬ 
mond. See Memoir by Anderson prefixed to his works. 

MOOS, SALOMON (1831-95). German aurist. He was born at 
Randegg, Baden, July 15, studied at Heidelberg, Prague and 
Vienna, and in 1859 became private docent at Heidelberg and 
in 1866 professor of aural surgery there. His most valuable 
researches were in relation to the diseases of the labyrinth 
of the ear, and he was the first to demonstrate that in cer¬ 
tain infectious diseases, micro-organisms within the ear 
labyrinth cause derangement of hearing and equilibrium. 
He wrote Klinik der Ohrenkrankheiten (1866) ; Anatomie 
und Physiologie der Eustachischen Rohre (1874) 1 Uber 
Meningitis cerebro-spinalis Epidemica (1881) ; Uber Pilzin - 
vasion des Labyrinths im Gofolge von einfacher Diphtherie 
(1887), und im Gefolge von Masern (1888); Histologische 
und bakterielle Untersuchungen uber Mittelohrerkrank- 
ungenbei den verscliiedenen Formen Diphtherie (1890). He 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 147 

also founded and edited with Knapp the Zeitschrift fur 
Ohrenheilkunde. 

MORTON, SAMUEL GEORGE (1799-1851). American anat¬ 
omist; born at Philadelphia January 26; he died there May 
15. He studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania 
and in Edinburgh; began to practise in Philadelphia in 1824; 
was immediately prominent in the Academy of Natural 
Sciences, being its secretary in 1825 and its president in 1850. 
He became professor of anatomy in Penn College in 1839; 
and made special studies of ethnology, craniology and plant 
physiology. His valuable collection of skulls, numbering 
1,500 specimens (900 human), led him to urge the diverse 
origin of the human race. He contributed to Silliman’s 
Journal, and published Crania Americana (1839) ; Crania 
Bgyptica (1844) ; and Illustrated System of Human Anatomy 
(1849). 

MOTT, VALENTINE (1785-1865). An eminent American 
surgeon; born on Long Island, N. Y., August 20; he grad¬ 
uated at Columbia College; studied under Sir Astley Cooper 
in London, and also spent a winter in Edinburgh. After 
acting as demonstrator of anatomy he was appointed pro¬ 
fessor of surgery in Columbia College in 1809. From 1811 
to 1834 he was in very extensive practise as a surgeon, and 
most successful as a teacher and operator. He tied the in¬ 
nominate artery in 1818; the patient living twenty-six days. 
He performed a similar operation on the carotid, forty-six 
times with good results; and in 1827 he was also successful 
in the case of the common iliac. He is said to have per¬ 
formed 1,000 amputations and 165 lithotomies. After spend¬ 
ing seven years in Europe (1834-1841), Mott returned to 
New York and founded the university medical college 
of that city. He translated Velpeau’s Operative Surgery, 
and was foreign associate to the Imperial Academy of Medi¬ 
cine of Paris. His death occurred April 26. 

MULDER, GERADUS JOHANNES (1802-80) Dutch chem¬ 
ist and physician; born at Utrecht, Holland, December 27, 
and died there in April. He was educated at the University 
of Utrecht and became professor of botany and chemistry 
there (1840-68), but first practised medicine in Amsterdam 
for some years. He was also for a short time professor 
of chemistry at Rotterdam. He became known chiefly 
through his researches on the proteids, and advanced the 
belief in a hypothetical substance which he called protein. 
This he believed to be the essential nitrogenous constituent 
of food, existing in animals, and derived ready-formed from 
plants and vegetables. The publication of this theory in- 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


148 

volved Mulder in a controversy with Liebig, who from the 
first doubted the existence of protein as an independent chem¬ 
ical compound. The whole theory has been abandoned and 
the word protein is now used to indicate the first element in 
compounds. His principal work, Chemistry of Vegetable 
and Animal Physiology has been translated into English by 
Fromberg, and his Chemistry of Wine, by Bence Jones. 
Tie also wrote: Chemical Researches; De Voeding in Neder¬ 
land; De Voeding van den Neger in Suriname; and his 
posthumous autobiography Levensschets (1881 2d ed. 1883). 

MULLER, JOHANNES (1801-58). German physiologist and 
morphologist; born at Coblenz, July 14, died in Berlin, 
April 28. After studying anatomy and zoology at Bonn and 
Berlin, he became professor of physiology and anatomy at 
Bonn, and afterward succeeded Rudolphi at Berlin. Here 
he also edited the Archiv fur Anatomie, Physiologie und 
Wissenschaftliche Medicin. He remained in Berlin until 
his death. Muller possessed one of the greatest scientific 
minds of the nineteenth century; and his remarkable powers 
of application, acuteness, and penetration led him into wide 
fields of research, where he succeeded in making most val¬ 
uable observations. He is regarded as the founder of mod¬ 
ern physiology. He summed up work of his predecessors, 
instituted new methods of experimental and microscopic 
investigation, and carried out and recorded valuable observa¬ 
tions in connection with the mechanism of sight, hearing, 
and voice. He contributed to the foundation of Bell’s law 
and principles of reflex action and other nervous move¬ 
ments. He further elucidated the chemical and physical 
properties of chyle, lymph, and bile, and studied in an orig¬ 
inal and fruitful way the phenomena of the glands and the 
quality of glandular secretions. To Muller physiology owes 
the knowledge of chondrin. His Handbuch der Physiologie 
des Menschen (1833-40; Eng. trans. 1840-49) exercised great 
influence as a text-book. Muller counted among his pupils 
such as Helmboltz, Vierordt, Du Bois-Reymond, etc. He 
was also a student of comparative anatomy, and was the 
founder of the new morphology. He greatly enriched the 
subject of comparative embryology, and was the first to 
explain the real nature of hermaphroditism. He also dis¬ 
covered the pronephrics ducts, which bear his name. Among 
his important publications is his Systematische Beschreibung 
der Plagiostomen (1841) ; and in zoology, the System der 
Asteriden (1842), in collaboration with Troschel, and Horce 
Ichthyologicce. He also published many articles in the 
Transactions of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. Consult: 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


149 


Virchow, Johannes Muller, Bine Geddchtnisrede (1858) ; Bis- 
choff, Ueber Johannes Muller und sein Verhdltnis sum jet- 
zigen Standpunkt der Physiologie (1858) ; Proceedings of 
the Royal Society of London (vol. IX, p. 556). 

MUNDE, PAUL FORTUNATUS (1846-1902). American gyn¬ 
ecologist. He was born at Dresden, Saxony, September 
7 , and died in New York, February 7. After coming to the 
United States in 1849 he attended the Boston Latin school 
and then studied medicine at Yale. He left before com¬ 
pleting his course, entering the Union army as medical 
cadet in 1864. He was afterward graduated from the Har¬ 
vard Military school in 1866, and went to Germany, where 
he enlisted in the Bavarian army. He was decorated with 
the Iron Cross by the emperor, for heroism in saving the 
lives of patients from a burning hospital near Paris. After 
devoting himself to study and practise in hospitals in Berlin, 
Heidelberg, Paris, London, and Edinburgh, he took up his 
residence in New York in 1873, and practised obstetrics and 
gynecology. He was appointed professor at Dartmouth Med¬ 
ical College, and in the New York Polyclinic in 1882. He 
edited (1874-92) the American Journal of Obstetrics , and 
was president of the American Gynecological Society in 1897- 
98. Among his works are: Obstetric Palpitation (1880); 
Minor Surgical Gynecology (1880); Appendix to the Mid¬ 
wifery of Cazeaux and Tamier (1884); Pregnancy and the 
Puerperal State (1887); and Diseases of Women (1891). 

MURCHISON, CHARLES (1830-79). A Scotch physician; 
born on the island of Jamaica, he was educated at the uni¬ 
versities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Dublin, and Paris. In 
1853 he entered the East India Company’s military service, 
but soon after reaching India was appointed professor of 
chemistry at the Calcutta Medical College. In 1855 he 
published two valuable papers on The Climate and Diseases 
of Burmah. The same year he returned to Europe and 
settled in London, where he was connected with a number 
of the leading hospitals. He published the important 
Treatise on the Continued Fevers of Great Britain (1862). 

MUSPRATT, JAMES SHERIDAN (1821-71). A British chem¬ 
ist. He was born at Dublin, Ireland, March 8; in 
1837 he was appointed chemist for an English manufac¬ 
turing company, and afterward studied at Giessen, Germany. 
He is best known in the scientific world for his investiga¬ 
tions in ethyl and his discoveries in organic chemistry. 
He published Outlines of Qualitative Analysis (1849); 
Dictionary of Chemistry (1854); and a translation of the 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


150 

Blowpipe, by Plattner (1844). He died at West Derby, 
England, February 3. 

MUSSEY, REUBEN DIMOND (1780-1866). American sur¬ 
geon; born at Pelham, N. H., June 23, he died in Boston, 
June 21. He was graduated at Dartmouth in 1803; studied 
medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; practised in 
Salem, Mass.; taught in the Dartmouth medical school 
(1814-20 and 1822-38), at Bowdpin (1833-35), at Ohio Med¬ 
ical College (1837-50), and at Miami Medical College, which 
he founded (1851-58) ; and spent the last eight years of his 
life in practise in Boston. He was a famous operator, the 
first to remove the shoulder blade, or to tie both carotid 
arteries, and successful in his operations for stone, for re¬ 
moving ovarian tumor, for strangulated hernia, and in sub¬ 
cutaneous deligation in varicocele. Mussey wrote Health; 
Its Friends and Its Foes (1862). 

N 

NELATON, AUGUSTE (1807-73). French physician and 
surgeon; born June 17; died in Paris, September 21. He 
studied medicine at Paris under Dupuytren, and was 
graduated 1836. Soon after he was appointed hospital sur¬ 
geon and private lecturer in the faculty of medicine in the 
University of Paris. In 1851 he was appointed professor 
of clinical surgery, an office which he held until 1867, when 
he retired. In 1868 he was raised to the dignity of senator, 
Nelaton was equally distinguished as a professor and as an 
operator, and invented “Nelaton’s probe,” used in military 
surgery in locating bullets. His chief publication is his 
Elements de Pathologie chirurgicale (1844-60; 2d ed. 1868- 
85), a work of great value, in which several of his pupils 
took part. 

NELSON, WOLFRED (1792-1863). Canadian physician; born 
at Montreal, Canada, July 10; died there June 17. He was a 
surgeon in the British army in the War of 1812, but in 1837 
he headed the rebellion decided upon in the meeting of the 
“Four Countries.” He was captured and sentenced to im¬ 
prisonment for life in the Bermudas, but the sentence was 
declared illegal and he was liberated. He lived in the Uni¬ 
ted States 1838-42, when he returned to Montreal and was 
twice chosen mayor of that city. He also served as presi¬ 
dent of the medical board and College of Surgeons of Lower 
Canada. 

NIEMEYER, FELIX VON (1820-71). German physician. He 
was grandson of the poet and theologian, August Hermann 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


151 

Niemeyer; bom at Magdeburg, December 31, died in Tubin¬ 
gen, March 14. He was educated at Halle; practised in 
Magdeburg (1844-55); was professor of pathology and 
therapeutics at Greifswald, and from i860 at Tubingen; was 
military surgeon during the Franco-Prussian war; was en¬ 
nobled for his services to the king of Wiirtemberg; and 
wrote a Text-Book of Special Pathology and Therapeutics 
(1858), often republished and distinctly valuable. 

NOTT, JOSIAH CLARKE (1804-73). American ethnologist 
and physician; born at Columbia, S. C., March 24, and 
died in Mobile, Ala., March 31. In 1824 he was gradu¬ 
ated from the South Carolina College and from the 
medical school of the University of Pennsylvania in 1827. 
After further study abroad he established himself in Mobile, 
and in 1858 founded a medical school there. During the 
Civil War he was for a time on the staff of the Confederate 
General Bragg. With G. R. Glidden he wrote Types of 
Mankind (1850), and Indigenous Races of the Earth (1857), 
the purpose of which was to oppose the theory of the unity 
of mankind. He was sole author of The Connection Between 
the Biblical and Physical History of Man (1849); The 
Physical History of the Jewish Race (1850). 

NUSSBAUM, JOHANN NEPOMUK (1829-90). German sur¬ 
geon. He was born at Munich, Bavaria, September 2, and 
died there October 31. He studied in Munich, Wurzburg, 
Berlin and Paris, and in i860 became a professor at the 
University of Munich. He published Die Pathologie und 
Therapie der Ankylosen (1862); Die Verletzungen des 
Unterleibs (1880); Ueber Chloroformwirkung (1885), etc. 

O 

OERTEL, MAX JOSEPH (1835-97). A German physician; 
specialist in diseases of the lungs and heart. He was born 
at Dillingen, studied at Munich, and in 1867 became docent 
of laryngology there, from which post he was promoted to 
a professorship in 1876. Oertel discovered the bacillus of 
diphtheritis in 1868, but is better known for his system of 
hill-climbing as a cure for faulty respiration or circulation. 
A device for examining the larynx, the laryngostroboscope, 
is one of his inventions. He contributed to Ziemsen’s 
Handbuch der speziellen Pathologie und Therapie, Lieb- 
reich’s Encyclopadie der Therapie, and other encyclopaedic 
works. His most famous work is Allgemeine Therapie der 
Kreislaufstdrungen (1884); besides he wrote: Ueber den 
laryngologischen Unterricht (1878); Ueber Terrainkurorte 


152 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


zur Behandlung der Kreislaufstorungen (1887) ; Pathogenese 
der epidemischen Diphtherie (1887) ; Massage des Herzens 
(1889) ; and Das Laryngostroboskop und seine Verwendung 
in der Physik, Physiologie und Medizin (1895). 

OKEN, LORENZ (1779-1851). Naturalist. In 1807 he be¬ 
came professor of Medicine at Jena, and in 1816 issued a 
journal called Iris, which led to government interference 
and his resignation. In 1828 he obtained a professorship 
at Munich, and in 1832 at Zurich. His system was a 
transcendental nature-philosophy, fertile in ideas. He de¬ 
veloped the theory, now exploded, that the skull is a modi¬ 
fied vertebra. See works by Ecker (1880), and Guttler 
(1884). 

OLBERS, HEINRICH WILHELM MATTHAUS (1758-1840). 

Physician and astronomer, who practised medicine at Bre¬ 
men. He calculated the orbit of the comet of 17795 dis¬ 
covered the minor planets Pallas (1802) and Vesta (1807); 
in 1781 rediscovered the planet Uranus; discovered five 
comets; and invented a method for calculating the velocity 
of falling stars. He died March 2. See his Life prefixed to 
his works by Schilling (3 vols. 1894-97). 

O’MEARA, BARRY EDWARD (1778-1836). An English phy¬ 
sician. He was born in Ireland; and died in London June 3. 
He was household physician to the Emperor Napoleon I at 
Saint Helena and published Napoleon in Exile (1822). 
Originally a surgeon in the British navy, he was serving on 
the Bellerophon in that capacity August 7, 1815, when 
Napoleon went on board. Napoleon noting O’Meara’s skill 
and knowledge of Italian, desired the surgeon to accompany 
him to Saint Helena. Having obtained Admiral Keith’s 
permission, O’Meara remained with the ex-emperor until 
July, 1818. He was then recalled and deprived of his rank 
for having accused Sir Hudson Lowe before the admiralty 
of cruel and arbitrary conduct. 

OPPOLZER, JOHANN VON (1808-71). An eminent Austrian 
physician. He was born at Gratzen, Bohemia, and studied 
medicine in Prague, where he practised for some time and in 
1841 became professor in the medical clinic. For two years 
he was professor of special pathology and therapy in Leipzig, 
and in 1850 was called to the university at Vienna, where 
his name contributed much to the fame of the medical 
faculty. He was widely known as a clinicist and for his 
opposition to “nihilism” in therapeutics. His Klinische 
Vortrdge (1866-72) was edited by Stoffella. 

ORFILA, MATHIEU JOSEPH BONAVENTURE (1787-1853). 
Founder of toxicology; born at Mahon in Minorca, April 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


153 


24, he studied at Valencia, Barcelona, and Paris. In 1811 
he lectured on chemistry, botany, and anatomy. In 1813 
appeared his celebrated Trait e de Toxicologie Generate. In 
1819 he became professor of medical jurisprudence, and in 
1823 of chemistry. He died March 12. Other works were 
on medical chemistry (1817) and on forensic medicine 
(1825). 

ORIBASIUS, (326-403 A. D.). Greek medical author, and phy¬ 
sician to Julian the Apostate; he was born at Pergamus or 
Sardis. 

OTIS, FESSENDEN NOTT (1825-1900). American surgeon; 
born at Ballston Spa, N. Y., May 6; he died May 24. He 
was graduated from the New York Medical College in 1852; 
was surgeon of the New York police department in 1861; 
lecturer on genito-urinary diseases at the New York Col¬ 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons 1862-71, and clinical pro¬ 
fessor there from the date last named. Among surgical 
instruments invented by him may be cited the urethrometer 
and the dilating catheter. He published History of the 
Panama Railroad and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company 
(1849); Urethral Strictures (1877); Genito-Urinary Dis¬ 
eases (1883). 

OTIS, GEORGE ALEXANDER (1830-81). An American mili¬ 
tary surgeon. He was born at Boston, Mass.; graduated 
at Princeton in 1849, and in medicine at the University of 
Pennsylvania in 1851. In September, 1861, he was appointed 
surgeon of the Twenty-seventh Massachusetts Volunteers. 
With them he served until 1864, when he was appointed sur¬ 
geon of United States Volunteers, and was assigned to 
duty as curator of the Army Medical Museum and custodian 
of the Division of Surgical Records at Washington. On 
the conclusion of peace he accepted an appointment as as¬ 
sistant-surgeon in the medical corps, and continued his duties 
at the museum, which, owing to his zeal and energy, came 
to possess the most valuable surgical and anatomical col¬ 
lection in the world. He compiled the surgical volumes of 
the Medical and Surgical History of the War (1870-81), 
contributed frequently to medical publications, and for three 
years edited the Richmond Medical Journal. Among his 
writings are Excision of the Head of the Femur for Gun¬ 
shot Injury (1869); and Amputation of the Hip-Joint in 
Military Surgery (1867). 

OWEN, SIR RICHARD (1804-92). Zoologist; born at Lan¬ 
caster, July 20, he studied medicine at Edinburgh and St. 
Bartholomew’s; became curator in the museum of the Royal 
College of Surgeons, where he produced a marvelous series 


154 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

of descriptive catalogues; and in 1834-55 he lectured as pro¬ 
fessor of comparative anatomy, for two years at St. Bar¬ 
tholomew’s, and afterwards at the College of Surgeons. 
Meanwhile he helped to give new life to the Zoological 
Society of London, and was a commissioner of health (1843- 
46), and for the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1856 he 
became superintendent of the natural history department of 
the British Museum, but continued to teach at the Royal 
Institution and elsewhere. F.R.S. (1834), president of the 
British Association (1857), Associate of the French Insti¬ 
tute (1859), C.B. (1873), K.C.B. (1883), recipient of many 
scientific medals, degrees, and honorary titles from many 
nations, he gained the immortality of a true worker, and 
died December 18. Owen’s anatomical and palaeontological 
researches number towards four hundred, and concern al¬ 
most every class of animals from sponge to man. He greatly 
advanced morphological inquiry by his clear distinction be¬ 
tween analogy and homology, and by his concrete studies on 
the nature of limbs, on the composition of the skull, and on 
other problems of vertebrate morphology; while his essay 
on Parthenogenesis was a pioneer work. A pre-Darwinian, 
he maintained a cautious attitude to detailed evolutionist 
theories. See Life by his grandson (1894). 

P 

PAGET, SIR GEORGE EDWARD (1809-1892). A British 
physician. He was born at Yarmouth, England; was edu¬ 
cated at the Charterhouse and at Cambridge; took his B.A. 
degree in 1831; became Fellow of Caius in 1832; M.D. in 
1838. In 1872 he was appointed regius professor of physics 
in Cambridge, and was knighted in 1885. He may well be 
regarded as a public benefactor, he having taken the prin¬ 
cipal part in the great advance that has been made in medi¬ 
cal education. He died January 29. 

PAGET, SIR JAMES, BART. (1814-99). A British physician; 
born at Yarmouth, January 11, he studied at St. Bartholo¬ 
mew’s Hospital, London; became a member of the Royal 
College of Surgeons in 1836; honorary fellow in 1843; mem¬ 
ber of the council in 1865; president of the college in 1875 ; 
Croonian lecturer (heart) in 1857; delivered the Hunterian 
oration in 1877; Bradshawe lecturer in 1882; Morton lec¬ 
turer (cancer) in 1887; sergeant-surgeon to the queen, 
surgeon to the Prince of Wales and consulting surgeon to 
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He was created a baronet in 
1871, and in the same year received the degree of LL.D. 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


155 


from the University of Edinburgh. Two standard works 
are Lectures on Surgical Pathology and Clinical Lectures. 
He was vice-chancellor of the University of London and a 
member of the Institute of France (Academy of Sciences). 

PAINE, MARTYN (1794-1877). An American physician. He 
was born at Williamstown, Vt., and in 1813 graduated at 
Harvard. He was one of the founders of the University 
Medical College (i84i) (now the medical department of the 
University of New York), where he was a professor from 
1841 to 1867. Among his works the best known are: Cholera 
Asphyxia of New York (1832) ; Medical and Physiological 
Commentaries (1840-44) ; Institutes of Medicine (1847) ; and 
a Review of Theoretical Geology (1856). 

PANAS, PHOTINOS (1832-1903). A French ophthalmologist; 
born in Cephalonia, Ionian Islands, January 30, he settled in 
Paris; was naturalized as a citizen, and graduated at the 
School of Medicine in i860. He was made associate pro¬ 
fessor and surgeon to the Central Bureau in 1863; and be¬ 
tween this period and 1S79 was successively appointed oph¬ 
thalmic surgeon to the Bicetre Hospital, the Lourcine, the 
Midi, the St. Antoine, the St. Louis and the Hotel Dieu. In 
1873 he received the decoration of the Legion of Honor. 
He published many papers and several books, among which 
are Legons sur le Strabisme, les JParalysies Oculaires (Paris, 
1873), and Legons sur les Retinites (1878). 

PANCOAST, JOSEPH (1805-82). An American surgeon; 
born in Burlington County, New Jersey, he graduated from 
the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania 
in 1828; and in 1831 was instructor in practical surgery in 
the same institution. Beginning in 1834, he was for eleven 
years connected with Blockley Hospital, and was also, dur¬ 
ing the greater part of the same period, professor of surgery 
in the Jefferson Medical College, exchanging this position 
for that of professor of anatomy in 1847. He served in this 
capacity until 1874. He was the author of many innovations 
in surgery, having succeeded in the formation of a nose by 
means of plastic sutures in 1841; the formation of eyebrows 
with strips of scalp; treatment of soft cataract with a fine 
bent needle; and of restoring the voice by operating upon the 
soft palate. He contributed to the American Journal of 
Medical Sciences, the Medical Examiner and the Medical 
Intelligencer. Among his writings are Treatise on the Struc¬ 
ture, Functions and Diseases of the Human Sympathetic 
Nerve (1831); and Treatise on Operative Surgery (1844). 

PANTALEON, (?-A.D. 305). A Roman saint, physician, and 
martyr; born, it is supposed, at Nicomedia in Bithynia, he 


156 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

studied medicine and became special physician to the 
Emperor Galerius. He was a Christian and was martyred 
as such. He is the patron saint of physicians, and his feast 
is kept on July 27. 

PARACELSUS, (i493?-i54i). Name coined for himself by 
Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, son of a physi¬ 
cian at Einsiedeln, in the canton of Schwyz; born 
apparently December 17, went to Basel University at 
sixteen, studied alchemy and chemistry with Trithemius, 
Bishop of Wurzburg, and next at the mines in Tyrol learned 
the properties of metals and minerals. In subsequent wander¬ 
ings he amassed a vast store of facts, learned the actual 
practise of medicine, but lost all faith in scholastic disquisi¬ 
tions and disputations. He acquired fame as a medical prac¬ 
titioner (1526), was made town physician at Basel, and 
lectured on medicine at the university, but flouted at Galen 
and Avicenna, and justified the furious enmities that pur¬ 
sued him by his own vanity, arrogance, aggressiveness, and 
intemperate habits. A dispute with the magistrates in 1528 
drove him from Basel; he wandered for a dozen years, and 
settled in 1541 at Salzburg, but died September 23, in the 
same year. Of some 250 works attributed to him, the critics 
only admit from ten to twenty-four as genuine, the others 
being by his followers the “Paracelsists.” They were mainly 
written in Swiss-German, and about a dozen were translated 
into English. The earliest printed work was Practica D. 
Theophrasti Paracelsi (1529). Collected German editions 
appeared at Basel in 1589-91 and again in 1603-5 (reissued 
1618), Latin editions in 1603-5 and 1658. In spite of his 
attraction to alchemy and mysticism, he made new chemical 
compounds, and improved pharmacy and therapeutics, en¬ 
couraged research and experiment, and, in an empirical 
fashion, revolutionized hide-bound medical methods. See 
monographs by M. B. Lessing (1839), Marx (1842), Mook 
(1876), and Kahlbaum (1894), the English Life by Fr. Hart¬ 
mann (1887), and Browning’s p.oem. 

PARE, AMBROISE (1517-90). The father of modern surgeiy; 
he was born near Laval, in 1536; as surgeon joined the 
army starting for Italy, and was surgeon to Henry II, 
Charles IX, and Henry III. He died in Paris. Pare im¬ 
proved the treatment of gunshot wounds, and substituted 
ligature of the arteries for cauterisation with a red-hot iron 
after amputation. His Cinq Livres de Chirurgie (1562) and 
other writings exercised a great influence on surgery. See 
Lives by Paulmier (1884) and Stephen Paget (1897). 

PARIS, JOHN AYRTON (1785-1856). An English physician 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


157 


and author. He was born and was educated at Cambridge, 
where after pursuing courses of study at Edinburgh, he took 
his medical degree in 1808. He began the practise of his 
profession in London, was made physician to Westminister 
Hospital, and later settled in Cornwall. There he obtained 
a large practise, studied natural history, and founded the 
Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. Returning to London, 
he lectured on materia medica and the philosophy of medi¬ 
cine at the Royal College of Physicians. He became a cen¬ 
sor of the Royal College of Physicians in 1817; delivered 
the Harveian oration before it in 1843, and next year suc¬ 
ceeded Sir Henry Halford in its presidency, retaining that 
office until his death. Among his works are a Pharmacologia 
(1812X, long the standard treatise on the subject; a Treatise 
on Diet (1827); Philosophy in Sport Made Science in 
Earnest (1827), a popular treatise on physical science; and 
a Life of Sir Humphry Davy (1831). 

PARK, MUNGO (1771-1805). African traveler. He was 
born September 10, at Foulshiels on the Yarrow, and studied 
medicine in Edinburgh (1789-91). Through Sir Joseph 
Banks, he was named assistant-surgeon in the Worcester, 
bound for Sumatra (1792); and in 1795 his services were 
accepted by the African Association. He learned Mandingo 
at an English factory on the Gambia, started inland in De¬ 
cember, was imprisoned by a chief, but escaping, reached the 
Niger at Sego in July, 1796. He pursued his way westward 
along its banks to Bammaku, and then crossing a mountain¬ 
ous country, fell ill, but was ultimately brought by a slave- 
trader back to the factory again, after an absence of nine¬ 
teen months. He told his adventures in Travels in the In¬ 
terior of Africa (1799). He married (1799), and settled as 
a surgeon at Peebles; but the life was repugnant to him, 
and in 1805 he undertook another journey to Africa at 
government expense. Again he started from Pisania on the 
Gambia, with a company of forty-five; but when he reached 
the Niger he had but seven followers. From Sansanding 
he sent back his journals and letters in November, 1805, and 
embarked in a canoe with four European companions. 
Through many perils and difficulties they reached Boussa, 
where the canoe was caught on a rock; they were attacked 
by the natives, and drowned in the fight. An account of 
Park’s second journey was published in 1815. See Life by 
Wishaw, prefixed to the Journal of 1815, and Joseph Thom¬ 
son’s Mungo Park (1890). 

PARKER, PETER (1804-88). A medical missionary and 
diplomat; born in Massachusetts, he graduated at Yale Col- 


158 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

lege in 1831; studied theology and medicine at New Haven; 
was ordained and went to China as a missionary in 1834. 
He established a hospital at Canton, principally for eye 
diseases, but soon for other diseases. Dr. Parker possessed 
great skill, and his fame spread rapidly. War breaking out 
in 1840 between England and China, the hospital was closed, 
and Dr. Parker returned to the United States. In 1842 he 
resigned his connection with the American Board of Foreign 
Missions and became secretary to the United States legation 
and interpreter of the new embassy, still having charge of 
the hospital. In the absence of the minister he acted as 
charge d’ affairs. In 1855, his health having failed, he again 
visited the United States, but by request of the Government, 
he returned the same year to China as commissioner with full 
power to revise the treaty of 1844. This position he held 
until a change of administration in 1857, when, his health 
again failing, he returned to the United States and settled 
in Washington. He published Reports of the Ophthalmic 
Hospital at Canton (Canton, 1836-52), Statements Respect¬ 
ing Hospitals in China (London, 1841) ; Notes of Surgical 
Practise Among the Chinese (Edinburgh, 1846). 

PARKER, WILLARD (1800-1884). An American surgeon; 
born at Lyndeboro, N. H., September 2. He graduated at 
Harvard in 1826; became a pupil of Dr. John C. Warren of 
Boston, and was appointed professor of anatomy in Berk¬ 
shire Medical College, Pittsfield, Mass., after graduating 
from the Harvard Medical School in 1830. In 1836, he ac¬ 
cepted a similar position in the Medical College of Cincin¬ 
nati, and in 1839 became professor of surgery in the New 
York College of Physicians and Surgeons, holding this 
position for thirty years, when, in 1869, he took the chair of 
clinical surgery. He established the first college clinic in 
the United States; in 1854 reported the first cases of ma¬ 
lignant pustule and made many valuable discoveries in 
practical surgery, including the cure of abscess of the vermi¬ 
form appendix. He became president of the New York 
State Inebriate Asylum in 1865; was member of many pro¬ 
fessional societies, domestic and foreign; author of many 
papers on practical surgery, including Cystotomy (1850) ; 
Concussion of Nerves (1856); Lecture on Cancer (1873). 
He died in New York City, April 25. 

PARKES, EDMUND ALEXANDER (1819-76). An army doc¬ 
tor and after 1845, a practitioner in London, who wrote 
largely on physiology, and was the founder of the science of 
hygiene. 

PARVIN, THEOPHILUS (1829-98). An American physician; 


OP MEDICAL HISTORY 159 

born at Buenos Ayres, Argentine republic, S. A., January 9; 
he graduated at the University of Indiana in 1847, and re¬ 
ceived his degree of M.D. from the University of Pennsyl¬ 
vania in 1852. From 1864 to 1869 he was professor of ob¬ 
stetrics in the Medical College of Ohio; in the medical de¬ 
partment of the University of Louisville till 1872; in the 
Indiana Medical College till 1883, when he was elected 
to the same chair in the Jefferson Medical College, Phila¬ 
delphia. In 1881 he was president of the Indiana State 
Medical Society, and in 1879 of the American Medical As¬ 
sociation; he was also president of the American Academy 
of Medicine and of the American Gynecological Society. 
He published Science and Art of Obstetrics (1886, 2d ed. 
1890); Obstetric Nursing (1889); and edited Winckel on 
Diseases of Women. 

PASTEUR, LOUIS (1822-95). Born at Dole, December 27; 
studied at Besanqon and Paris, and held academic posts 
at Strasburg, Lille, and Paris, where in 1867 he became pro¬ 
fessor of chemistry at the Sorbonne. From 1886 he worked 
at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. His work was at first 
chemical—as on tartrate crystals and “left-handed” tartrates. 
He erelong discovered a living ferment—a micro-organism 
comparable in its powers to the yeast-plant—which would, 
in a solution of paratartrate of ammonia, select for food 
the “right-handed” tartrates alone, leaving the “left-handed.” 
He next showed that other fermentations—lactic, butyric, 
acetic—are essentially due to organisms, greatly extended 
Schwann’s researches on putrefaction, gave valuable rules 
for making vinegar and preventing wine disease, and re¬ 
futed supposed proofs of spontaneous generation. After 
1865 he tackled, with brilliant success, silkworm disease, in¬ 
jurious growths in beer, splenic fever, and fowl cholera. He 
showed that it was possible to attenuate the virulence of 
injurious micro-organisms by exposure to air, by variety of 
culture, or by transmission through various animals. He 
thus demonstrated by a memorable experiment that sheep 
and cows “vaccinated” with the attenuated bacilli of splenic 
fever (or anthrax) were protected from the evil results of 
subsequent inoculation with the virulent virus; and by the 
culture of antitoxic re-agents prophylactic treatment of diph¬ 
theria, tubercular disease, cholera, yellow fever, and plague, 
has been found effective. His treatment of hydrophobia 
depends on similar proofs. A devout Catholic, he died Sep¬ 
tember 28, and was committed to his final resting-place in 
the Pasteur Institute, December 26, 1896. 

PAULUS, ASGINETA (Seventh Century). A Greek physician; 


160 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

born in ^Egina, and flourished in the 7th century. His 
Synopsis of the Medical Art went through many editions 
and translations. 

PEASLEE, EDMUND RANDOLPH (1814-78). An American 

physician, known as an obstetrician and gynecologist. He 
was born in New Hampshire, and graduated from Dart¬ 
mouth College in 1836, where he remained for two years as 
tutor. After taking his medical degree at Yale, he began 
practise in Hanover, N. H., in 1841. In 1842 he became pro¬ 
fessor of anatomy and physiology at Dartmouth, and he 
retained this position for nearly forty years. He was also 
professor at Bowdoin College. He was made professor of 
physiology and pathology in the New York Medical Col¬ 
lege in 1851, and in 1858 he assumed the chair of obstetrics 
and removed to New York City. This college became ex¬ 
tinct in 1864. He published Human Histology (1857), and 
Ovarian Tumors and Ovariotomy (1872). 

PEPPER, WILLIAM (1843-98). An American educator and 
author. He was born in Philadelphia, August 21; son of 
Dr. W. Pepper, professor of the theory and practise of medi¬ 
cine in the University of Pennsylvania (1860-64) ; gradu¬ 
ated at the University of Pennsylvania, in the arts depart¬ 
ment, in 1862; in the medical department in 1864; became 
lecturer on morbid anatomy (1868-70); clinical medicine 
(1870-76) ; professor of the latter (1876-87) ; of the theory 
and practice of medicine (1887) ; provost of the university 
(1881), resigning in 1894. He was assiduous in his efforts 
to extend and broaden the scope of the university, and dur¬ 
ing his office there were added the Wharton school of 
finance and economy; the department of veterinary medi¬ 
cine; the school of philosophy; the school of biology; the 
school of American history; the department of archaeology 
and palaeontology, and that of hygiene. He was medical 
director of the Centennial Exposition, receiving for his 
services in connection therewith the knight commandership 
of the Order of St. Olaf of Sweden. He was president of 
the American Association of American Physicians (1891), 
and of the Pan-American Medical Congress at Washington 
O893). He was the founder of The Medical Times, editing 
it the first year of its existence (1870-71). He published, in 
conjunction with Dr. John F. Meigs, Diseases of Children 
(1870), which went through many editions; and was the 
author of Sanitary Relations of Hospitals (1875) ; and edited 
the System of Medicine by American Authors (5 vols., 
1885-86), which was his chief literary performance. The 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY l6l 

list of his contributions to the professional and other 
journals is a long and important one. 

PEREIRA, JONATHAN (1804-53). Pharmacologist; born in 
London, was successively lecturer on chemistry and phy¬ 
sician to the London Hospital (1841), and was examiner 
in materia medica to London University. His books were 
Elements of Materia Medica (1839-40) and treatises on 
Diet and on Polarised Light (1843). See Memoir (1853). 

PERSOON, CHRISTIAN HENDRIK (1755-1837). A Dutch 
physician and botanist; born at the Cape of Good Hope, 
Africa. He was educated in Holland and practised his pro¬ 
fession for a number of years in Germany. He went to 
Paris about 1802, where he published several interesting 
works on cryptogamous plants; also, a Synopsis of Plants 
in two volumes. The titles of his principal works are: 
Observations Mycologicce (1796) ; Synopsis Methodica Fung- 
orum (1801) ; Incones Pictce Speciorum Rariorum Fung - 
orum (1803-08); Synopsis Plantarum (2 vols., 1805-07). 
The Austrian genus Persoonia is named in his honor. It 
embraces about 60 species, some of which are valuable tim¬ 
ber trees. 

PETERS, JOHN CHARLES (1819-93). An American physi¬ 
cian; born in New York city; studied medicine in Columbia 
and in Europe, and commenced practise in New York as a 
homeopathist, but afterwards joined the regular school. He 
published treatises on diseases of the head, of females, of 
the eye, and Asiatic cholera. In connection with Dr. E. F. 
Snelling and others, he published a Materia Medica. Dr. 
Peters was editor of the North American Journal of Homeo¬ 
pathy, and of the Transactions of the Pathological Society. 

PETTENKOFER, MAX VON (1818-1901). German chemist; 
born December 3; in 1847-94 he was professor of chemistry 
at Munich. He made valuable contributions to science on 
gold-refining, gas-making, ventilation, clothing, the influence 
of soils on health, epidemics, and hygiene generally. Of 
numerous works by him the best known is his Handbuch der 
Hygiene (1882, et seq.). 

PFEUFER, KARL VON (1806-69). A German physician 
who introduced the rational method of physical and chemical 
explanations for physiological and pathological conditions. 
He was born at Bamberg, and studied medicine at Erlangen 
and Wurzburg. After eight years of practise in Munich, 
Pfeufer held academic positions in Zurich (1840-44), in 
Heidelberg (1844-52), and in Munich (1852-69). Besides his 
great contributions to method, which appeared in the Zeit- 
11 


162 a biographical cyclopedia 

schrift fur rationelle Medizin (1844 et seq.), he wrote on 
cholera, Zum Schutz wider die Cholera (1849, 3d ed. 1854), 
and introduced public sanitation as a requisite in medical 
study. Consult Kerschensteiner, Lehen und Wirken des Dr. 
Karl Von Pfeufer (Augsburg, 1871). 

PHYSICK, PHILIP SYNG (1768-1837). An American sur¬ 
geon; born at Philadelphia, July 7; graduated at the Uni¬ 
versity of Pennsylvania in 1785; studied medicine in Phila¬ 
delphia and London, receiving in 1790 the appointment of 
house surgeon at St. George’s Hospital; received his license 
from the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 1791, and 
was given his degree by the University of Edinburgh in 
1792. He began practising in Philadelphia during the yel¬ 
low-fever epidemic of 1793, and in 1794 was elected surgeon 
of the Pennsylvania Hospital. From that time until 1831 
he filled various medical appointments, being president of 
the Phrenological Society of Philadelphia in 1822, and in 
1824 president of the Philadelphia Medical Society. In 1825 
he was elected a member of the French Academy of Medi¬ 
cine, and in 1836 was made an honorary fellow of the Royal 
Medical and Chirurgical Society of London. He introduced 
many valuable improvements in the treatment of disease, 
and invented modifications of surgical instruments. He 
died in Philadelphia, December 15. 

PINEL, PHILIPPE (1745-1826). French alienist; born at St. 
Andre d’ Alayrac, April 20, died in Paris, October 26. He 
studied medicine in Toulouse, in Montpellier and in Paris, 
where he had to teach philosophy and mathematics to keep 
himself alive. In 1791 he became directing physician in the 
Insane Asylum at Bicetre and in 1794 at the Salpetriere; 
and in both these institutions introduced gentle, kind treat¬ 
ment in place of the barbarities he found. In his book, 
Sur r Alienation Mentale (1791) he first suggested moral 
remedies for the insane, so that this work is the foundation 
of modern psychiatry. His Nosographie philosophique 
(1798) created an epoch in French medicine. He became a 
member of the Institute in 1803 on Cuvier’s death. Sus¬ 
pected of liberal political views he was removed from his 
post in the medical school in 1823. 

PIORRY, PIERRE ADOLPHE (1794-1879). A French physi¬ 
cian; born in Paris. He was educated there, became doctor 
of medicine in 1816, and in 1840 was appointed professor of 
pathology and in 1850 of clinical medicine. He advised a 
new nomenclature which met with no success and invented 
the pleximeter for mediate percussion, for which he received 
the Montyon prize in 1828. He wrote; De V heredite dans 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 163 

les maladies (1840) ; Traite de medecine practique (1842-51), 
and Traite de plessimetrisme (1866). 

PITCAIRNE, ARCHIBALD (1652-1713). Edinburgh physi¬ 
cian and satirist, in 1692-93 was professor at Leyden. He 
was notorious as a Jacobite, an Episcopalian, a satirist of 
Presbyterianism, and, according to his opponents, an atheist 
and scoffer at religion. See Life by Webster (1781). 

POST, ALFRED CHARLES, (1806-86). American surgeon; 
born at New York, January 13, and died there February 17. 
He was graduated from Columbia in 1822 and from the Col¬ 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons in 1827. After two years’ 
further study in Europe he established a practise in New 
York; in 1831-35 was demonstrator of anatomy in the Col¬ 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons, in 1836 became attending 
surgeon at the New York Hospital, and throughout his life 
continued his connection there, occupying at his death the 
office of consulting surgeon. He was appointed professor of 
ophthalmic surgery at Castleton (Vt.) Medical College, in 
1843, and of surgery in the following year. In 1851-57 he 
was professor of surgery in the University of the City of 
New York, vice-president of the New York Academy of 
Medicine in 1861-66, and its president in 1867-68; president 
of the Pathological Society, and for many years was con¬ 
nected with Saint Luke’s, the Presbyterian, and the Women’s 
Hospitals. He conducted a weekly clinic at the University 
Medical College, in New York, for many years, was the first 
surgeon in the United States to perform an operation for the 
cure of stammering, and was the inventor of several valu¬ 
able surgical instruments and appliances. Besides numerous 
medical papers contributed to scientific journals, he published 
Strabismus and Stammering (1840). 

POST, WRIGHT (1766-1828). American surgeon; born at 
North Hempstead, N. Y., February 19, died Throgg’s Neck, 
N. Y., June 14. He received his medical education in New 
York and London, and in 1786 established a practise in New 
York. In 1792 he was appointed professor of surgery at 
Columbia, where he later occupied the chair of anatomy 
and physiology, afterward holding the same chair in the 
Medical School of New York. For 35 years he was con¬ 
sulting surgeon in the New York Hospital, president of the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1821-26, and was 
prominently connected with numerous medical societies. He 
made himself famous by his surgical achievements, many 
of which were departures from the old school. 

POTT, PERCIVAL (1713-1788). A British surgeon; born in 
London, England, he was a specialist in diseases of the 


164 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


spine, and “Pott’s disease” received its name from his dis¬ 
covery of the causes of curvature of the spine. For 38 years 
he was a chief surgeon at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, Lon¬ 
don. He published a number of treatises, among them 
Nature and Consequences of Wounds and Contusions of the 
Head (1760) ; and That Kind of Palsy of the Limbs which 
Attends Curvature of the Spine (i 779 >- He died December 
22. 

PREYER, WILHELM THIERRY (1841-97). German physi¬ 
ologist; born at Manchester, England, July 4, and died in 
Wiesbaden, Germany, July 15. He was educated in the 
universities of Bonn, Berlin, Heidelberg, Vienna, and Paris; 
took his degree in both philosophy and medicine, and in 
1869 was appointed professor of physiology at Jena. In 
1888 he became privat-docent at Berlin. He has made valu¬ 
able investigations in the fields of quantitative spectral 
analysis, the perception of sound and the precise qualities of 
the senses. Of his books the most famous is Die Seele des 
Kindes (1881), and especially deserving of mention are 
Ueber Empfindungen (1867); Ueber die Grenzen der Ton- 
wahrnehmung (1876) ; Elemente der allgemein Physiologie 
(1883); Der Hypnotismus (1890). 

PRICHARD, JAMES COWLES (1786-1848). Ethnologist; 
born at Ross, the son of a Quaker merchant, February 11, 
studied medicine, and in 1810, after a residence at Cam¬ 
bridge and Oxford commenced practise in Bristol. He was 
appointed physician to the Clifton Dispensary and St. 
Peter’s Hospital, and afterwards to the Bristol Infirmary. 
In 1813 appeared his Researches into the Physical History 
of Mankind (4th ed. 1841-51), which secured him a high 
standing as an ethnologist. In The Eastern Origin of the 
Celtic Nations (1831; 2d ed. by Latham, 1857), he estab¬ 
lished the close affinity of the Celtic with the Sanskrit, 
Greek, Latin, and Teutonic languages. Besides several med¬ 
ical works, he also published an Analysis of Egyptian Myth¬ 
ology (1819) and The Natural History of Man (1843; 4th 
ed. 1855). He was president of the Ethnological Society, 
and in 1845 became a commissioner in lunacy. He died 
in London, December 22. 

PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH (1733-1804). The father of pneumatic 
chemistry. He was born, a cloth-dresser’s son, at Field- 
head in Birstall parish, Leeds, March 13. After four years 
in a Dissenting academy at Daventry, in 1755 he became 
Presbyterian minister at Needham Market, and wrote The 
Scripture Doctrine of Remission, denying that Christ’s death 
was a sacrifice, and rejecting the Trinity and Atonement. 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


165 

In 1758 he removed to Nantwich, and in 1761 became a tutor 
at Warrington Academy. In yearly visits to London he 
met Franklin, who supplied him with books for his History 
of Electricity (1767). In 1764 he was made LL.D. of Edin¬ 
burgh, and in 1766 F.R.S. In 1767 he became minister of a 
chapel at Mill Hill, Leeds, where he took up the study of 
chemistry. In 1774, as literary companion, he accompanied 
Lord Shelburne on a continental tour, and published Letters 
to a Philosophical Unbeliever. But at home he was branded 
as an atheist in spite of his Disquisition relating to Matter 
and Spirit (1777), affirming from revelation our hope of 
resurrection. He was elected to the French Academy of 
Sciences in 1772 and to the St. Petersburg Academy in 1780. 
He became in that year minister of a chapel at Birmingham. 
His History of Early Opinions concerning Jesus Christ 
(1786) occasioned renewed controversy. His reply to 
Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution led a Birming¬ 
ham mob to break into his house and destroy its contents 
(1791). He now settled at Hackney, and in 1794 removed to 
America, where he was heartily received; at Northumberland, 
Pa., he died February 6, believing himself to hold the doc¬ 
trines of the primitive Christians, and looking for the second 
coming of Christ. Priestley is justly called the father of 
pneumatic chemistry; good authorities (see Nature, xlii, 
1890), defend the priority of the discovery of oxygen (1774) 
and of the composition of water (1781), and deny Lavoi¬ 
sier’s claim to be considered an independent discoverer. See 
Rutt’s edition of Priestley’s Works (1831-32), including 
Autobiographical Memoir; and Martineau’s Essays. 

PRIESTLEY, WILLIAM OVEREND (1829-1900). A British 
surgeon; born near Leeds, Yorkshire, June 24. He was edu¬ 
cated at the University of Edinburgh, and took the degree 
of M.D. in 1853. Settling in London as a physician in 1856, 
he became one of the lecturers at the Grosvenor Place 
School of Medicine. Somewhat later, he was appointed 
lecturer on midwifery at the Middlesex Hospital, and in 
1862 professor of obstetric medicine in King’s College, Lon¬ 
don, and physician to King’s College Hospital. He was 
knighted in 1893. He was examiner at the University of 
Cambridge and the Victoria University. Dr. Priestley pub¬ 
lished various works on natural history and medicine. 
Among his publications are The Development of the Gravid 
Uterus and Obstetric Works. 

PRINGLE, SIR JOHN (1707-82). From 1748 a London phy¬ 
sician, and physician to the king from 1774 - He was born at 
Stitchel, Kelso, and in 1766 was made a baronet. 


1 66 A BIOGRAPHI CAE CYCLOPEDIA 

PROCIDA, GIOVANNI DA (about 1210-98). A royal physi¬ 
cian and statesman; born at Salerno. See work by De 
Renci (Nap. i860). 

PROUST, JOSEPH LOUIS (1754-1826). A French chemist; 
born at Angers. He studied chemistry there and in Paris, 
and became chief apothecary to the Salpetriere. He put on 
a firm basis the chemical law of definite proportions, some¬ 
times called Proust’s law; discovered glucose (i 799 ) J and in 
general greatly advanced the knowledge of quantitative an¬ 
alysis. 

PROUT, WILLIAM (1785-1850). From 1812 a London phy¬ 
sician and chemist. He was born at Horton near Chipping- 
Sodbury. His Hypothesis (1815) is a modification of the 
atomic theory. 

PUCCINOTTI, FRANCESCO (1794-1872). An Italian physi¬ 
cian, was professor at Rome and Pisa, and wrote a his¬ 
tory of medicine. 


Q 

QUAIN, JONES (1796-1865). Born at Mallow, he studied 
medicine at Dublin and Paris, and in 1831-35 was professor 
of anatomy in London University. He wrote the well-known 
text-book, Quain’s Elements of Anatomy (1828, 10th ed. 
1890-96). 

QUAIN, RICHARD (1800-87). English anatomist, brother of 
J. Quain; born at Fermoy, Ireland, in July; died in London, 
September 14. He was appointed professor of anatomy and 
clinical surgery in University College, London, in 1837, and 
was elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons in 
1868. Among his works are: Anatomy of Arteries, with 
folio plates (1845) ; Diseases of the Rectum (1854) > Ob¬ 
servations on Medical Education (1865) ; Some Defects of 
Medical Education (1870). He bequeathed nearly $375,000 
to University College, London, for the “education in modern 
languages (especially English) and in natural sciences.” 

QUAIN, SIR RICHARD (1816-98). Born at Mallow, Octo¬ 
ber 30; was Lumleian lecturer at the College of Physi¬ 
cians in 1872, Harveian orator in 1885, and was made 
physician-extraordinary to the Queen; LL.D. of Edinburgh 
in 1889, president of the General Medical Council in 1891, 
and a baronet in 1891. He edited the Dictionary of Medi¬ 
cine (1882); 2d ed. 1894). 

QUESNAY, FRANQOIS (1694-1774). Economist. He studied 
medicine at Paris, and at his death was first physician to the 
king. But thp fame of the “European Confucius” depends 

1 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


167 

on his essays in political economy. Around him and his 
friend, M. de Gournay, gathered the famous group of 
the Economistes, also called the Physiocratic School. Ques- 
nay’s views were set forth in Tableaux Economiques. Only 
a few copies were printed (1758), and these are lost; yet 
Quesnay’s principles are well known from his contributions 
to the Encyclopedic, and from his Maximes du Gouverne- 
ment Economique, Le Droit Naturel, etc.—collected in Onc- 
ken’s edition of his CEuvres (1888). 

R 

RADCLIFFE, CHARLES BLAND (1822-89). An English 
physician; born at Brigg, Lincolnshire, the brother of John 
Netten Radcliffe (1826-84), the epidemiologist. He studied 
under a practising physician at Wortley, and afterwards in 
Leeds, in Paris, and at the London University, where he 
graduated in 1851. He was appointed physician to the West¬ 
minster Hospital in 1857, and in 1863 was made physician 
to the National Hospital for the Paralyzed and Epileptic. He 
was Gulstonian lecturer in i860, and Croonian lecturer in 
1873, to the Royal College of Physicians in London. His 
works include: Proteus, or the Law of Nature (1850); 
The Philosophy of Vital Motion (1851) ; Epilepsy and 
Other Affections of the Nerve and Muscle (1871); and 
Vital Motion as a Mode of Physical Motion (1876). With 
Ranking he edited Ranking’s Abstract of the Medical 
Sciences (1845 to 1873). 

RADCLIFFE, JOHN (1650-1714). English physician; born 
at Wakefield, he studied at University College, Oxford, be¬ 
came a fellow of Lincoln, took his M.B. in 1675, his M.D. 
in 1682, and in 1684 removed to London, where he soon 
became the most popular physician of his time, original, 
capricious, and not too temperate. A Jacobite, he yet 
attended William III and Queen Mary; in 1713 he was 
elected M.P. for Buckingham. He bequeathed the bulk of 
his large property to public uses—the Radcliffe Library, In¬ 
firmary, and Observatory, the University College at Oxford, 
and St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London. 

RAMSAY, DAVID (1749-1815). American physician and his¬ 
torian. He was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 
April 2, and died at Charleston, S. C., May 8. He studied 
medicine and practised in Charleston, where he soon acquired 
celebrity. He was a field-surgeon in the Continental army, 
was elected to the State Legislature in 1776, was a prisoner 
of the British in 1780-81 and in 1772-76 served in the Conti- 


l68 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

nental Congress, acting as president in 1775-76. He was a 
member of the South Carolina legislature in 1801-15, and 
was president of the State senate when he was killed by a 
lunatic. He labored zealously with his pen to promote the 
cause of American independence, and among his publications 
are: The History of the American Revolution (1785) > The 
Life of Washington (1789) ; The History of South Carolina 
(1809) ; Universal History Americanized, or an Historical 
View of the World, from the Earliest Record to the 19th 
Century (12 vols., 1816-17); etc. 

RASP AIL, FRANCOIS VINCENT (1794-1878). French chem¬ 
ist, doctor, and revolutionist, whose camphor-system (1845) 
was a forerunner of antiseptic surgery. See monograph by 
Saint-Martin (1877). 

RAY, ISAAC (1807-81). An American physician; born in 
Beverly, Mass., January 16. He graduated at Harvard; 
practised medicine at Portland, Maine, and removed to East- 
port in 1829; gave much attention to insanity, and was ap¬ 
pointed superintendent of the State Insane Asylum at Au¬ 
gusta, Maine, in 1841, and of the Butler Asylum, in Rhode 
Island, in 1845. He removed, in 1867, to Philadelphia, where 
he died, March 31. He wrote Medical Jurisprudence of In¬ 
sanity (1838) ; Education in Relation to the Health of the 
Brain (1851); and Mental Hygiene (1863). 

REED, WALTER (1851-1902). American military surgeon 
and bacteriologist. He was born at Harrisonburg, Rocking¬ 
ham county, Virginia, and died in Washington, D. C., No¬ 
vember 23. He graduated from the medical department of 
the University of Virginia and from the Bellevue Hospital 
Medical College of New York, and was made first lieutenant 
assistant-surgeon, U. S. A., June 26, 1875. His promotions 
were captain assistant-surgeon, June 26, 1880, and major 
surgeon, December 4, 1903. In 1890-91, while stationed at 
Baltimore, he made particular study of bacteriology in the 
laboratory of Professor William Welch, of the Johns Hop¬ 
kins University; and established a laboratory of his own, 
in which he gave instruction to the student-officers of the 
Army Medical School. As curator of the Army Medical 
Museum, at Washington, D. C. (from 1893), he continued 
his researches, and soon became known as one of the leading 
bacteriologists of the country. His ability was especially 
displayed in his investigations of the causes and progress of 
epidemic diseases. In 1898 he was made head of the board 
for the study of the epidemics of typhoid occurring among 
the troops collected for the Spanish-American War. After 
the war he made several voyages to Cuba, and was on duty 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


169 


at Havana, studying the diseases of the island, and more 
particularly yellow fever, as a member of a board for its in¬ 
vestigation. After a series of brilliant experiments, he was 
able to announce that yellow fever is conveyed by a certain 
variety of mosquito (Stegomyia fasciata ), individuals of 
which become infected by biting persons ill with the fever 
and by their bite introduce it into the blood of non-immunes. 
The United States military government at once proceeded to 
measures of extermination which banished the fever from 
Havana, where it had prevailed for three centuries; the 
Atlantic sea-board of the United states was also thereby 
freed from constant peril. This achievement must rank 
among the important triumphs of bacteriological science. 
Consult Keane, Scientific Work and Discoveries of the Late 
Major Walter Reed (Senate Doc. 118). 

REGNAULT, HENRI VICTOR (1810-78). Chemist and physi¬ 
cist; born at Aix-la-Chapelle, was a mining engineer and a 
professor at Lyons, whence, in 1840, he was recalled to 
Paris as a member of the Academy of Sciences. Having 
filled chairs in the Lcole Polytechnique and the College de 
France, he became in 1854 director of the Sevres porcelain 
factory. He investigated gases, latent heat, steam-engines, 
etc., and published a Cours Elementaire de Chimie (14th ed. 
1871). See Eloge by Dumas (1881). 

RENAUDOT, THEOPHRASTE (1586-1653). A Protestant 
doctor, born at London, who settled in Paris in 1624, and 
founded the first French newspaper, the Gazette de France, 
in 1651. He also started the earliest Mont-de-Piete (1637), 
and advocated gratis dispensaries. See Life by Bonnefont 

(1893). 

RHAZES, or Razi (flourished 925). A Persian physician 
and alchemist who practised at Bagdad. 

RICHARDSON, SIR BENJAMIN WARD (1828-96). Born at 
Somerby, Leicestershire, October 31, studied at Glasgow, and 
took his M.D. at St. Andrews in 1854. He wrote on hygiene, 
strenuously promoted total abstinence, experimented with 
new anaesthetics, and invented several kinds of medical ap¬ 
paratus, methods for embalming, etc. An LL.D. and F.R.S., 
and knighted in 1893, he died November 21. His works in¬ 
clude Cause of the Coagulation of the Blood (1856), Hygeia, 
a Model City of Health (1876), Diseases of Modern Life 
(1876), Moderate Drinking (1879), Life of Edwin Chad¬ 
wick (1887), Common Health (1887), National Health 
(1890), Life of Sopwith (1891), and Vita Medica (1897). 
The quarterly Asclepiad (established 1884) was entirely 
written by him. 


170 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


RICHET, ALFRED (1816-91). A French surgeon; born at 
Dijon. He rose rapidly in his profession, became a member 
of the Academy of Medicine in 1865, did good service in the 
ambulance corps at the siege of Paris and in 1873 was com¬ 
mander of the Legion of Honor. Long professor of clinical 
surgery, Richet wrote Traite pratique d’ anatomie medico- 
chirurgicale (1857), and among special treatises, Legons 
cliniques sur les fractures de la jambe (1875). 

RICORD, PHILIPPE (1800-89). Physician; born at Balti¬ 
more, Md., removed to Paris, France, in 1820, and after 
1828 lectured on surgical operations, and was surgeon-in¬ 
chief for a venereal hospital, 1831-60. 

ROBERTS, SIR WILLIAM (1830-99). An English physi¬ 
cian. He was born at Bodedern, Wales, and educated at 
University College, London. After studying in Paris and 
Berlin, he became house surgeon, and in 1855 full physician 
to the Manchester Royal Infirmary—a post which he held 
until 1883. He was a fellow of the Royal Society, received 
the Cameron prize in 1879, and on his coming to London 
became a fellow of the London University. The use of 
predigested foods for the nutriment of invalids was intro¬ 
duced into England by him and he was an authority on 
diet. Roberts wrote: Blood Corpuscles Under Induence of 
Solutions of Magenta and Tannin (1863), in which “Roberts’s 
maculae” were described; Urinary and Renal Diseases (1865; 
4th ed. 1885) ; Digestive Ferments (Lumleian Lectures, 
1880); and Dietetics and Dyspepsia (1885). 

ROBIN, CHARLES PHILIPPE (1821-85). French physician 
and naturalist; born at Jasseron, department of Ain, June 4. 
He studied medicine in Paris. In 1847 he was made as¬ 
sistant professor of natural sciences on the Faculty of 
Medicine in Paris, and in 1862 professor of histology. He 
became celebrated for his microscopical researches in physi¬ 
ology. In 1864 he founded a journal on anatomy and physi¬ 
ology, in 1865 edited Nysten’s Encyclopaedic Dictionary of 
Medicine, and published Cellular Anatomy and Physiology 
(1873), and A New Abridged Dictionary of Medicine 
(1886). He died in Paris, October 6. 

ROGET, PETER MARK (1779-1869). Son of a Huguenot 
minister, he became a physician to the Manchester Infirm¬ 
ary in 1804; physician to the Northern Dispensary, London, 
in 1808, F.R.S. (1815), and its secretary in 1827-49; Ful- 
lerian professor of physiology at the Royal Institution 1833- 
36; and an original member of senate of London University. 
He wrote On Animal and Vegetable Physiology (Bridge- 
water Treatise, 1834); and his Thesaurus of English Words 


OE MEDICAL HISTORY 171 

and Phrases (1852) reached a 28th ed. in his lifetime (new 
eds. 1879, 1881, etc.). He died at West Malvern. 

ROKITANSKY, BARON KARL VON (1804-78). Bohemian 
anatomist; born at Koniggratz, February 19, died in Vienna, 
July 23. He studied at Prague and Vienna; became pro¬ 
fessor of pathological anatomy at the University of Vienna 
in 1834, and continued there until 1875. His great work, 
Handbuch der pathologischen Anatomie (1842-46), stands as 
the foundation of the science of pathological anatomy. It 
was translated by order of the Sydenham Society in 1849-52. 
In *869 Rokitansky became president of the Austrian 
Academy of Sciences. 

ROSE, HEINRICH (1795-1864). A German ohemist. He was 
born in Berlin, August 6; was educated at Stockholm and 
Kial, where he graduated in 1821, and was an instructor in 
the University of Berlin from 1822 till his death, being pro¬ 
fessor after 1835. His attention was devoted to analytic 
chemistry, which was advanced by him more than by any 
other one man. In 1844 niobium was discovered by him. 
His chief publication was Handbuch der Analytischen 
Chemie (1829) ; but he wrote a great many papers, published 
mostly in Gilbert’s Annalen and Poggendorff’s Annalen. He 
died in Berlin, January 27. 

RUDINGER, NIKOLAUS (1832-96). A German anatomist; 
born in Budesheim, and educated at Heidelberg and Giessen. 
He was appointed professor of anatomy at Munich in 1870. 
He was a pioneer in the use of photography in anatomic 
instruction. He published an Atlas des peripherischen 
Nervensystems (1861-65), an Atlas des menschlichen Ge- 
hororgans (1866-75), T op ographis ch-chirurgische Anatomic 
(1872-79), and Kursus der topographischen Anatomie 
(1891). 

RUSH, BENJAMIN (1745-1813). Born at Byberry, Pa., 
studied medicine at Edinburgh and Paris, and in 1769 be¬ 
came professor of chemistry at Philadelphia. Elected a 
member of the Continental Congress, he signed the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence (1776). In 1777 he was appointed 
surgeon-general, and later physician-general, of the Conti¬ 
nental army. In 1778 he resigned his post because he could 
not prevent frauds upon soldiers in the hospital stores, and 
resumed his professorship. In 1799 he became treasurer of 
the U. S. Mint. His chief works were: Medical Inquiries 
(1789-93), Essays (1798), and Diseases of the Mind (1821; 
5th ed. 1835). 

RUSH, JAMES (1786-1869). An American physician; son of 


172 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


the first Benjamin Rush; born in Philadelphia, March 1; 
graduated at Princeton in 1805, and at the medical depart¬ 
ment of the University of Pennsylvania in 1809; afterward 
studied in Edinburgh; practised medicine in Philadelphia; 
relinquished the active duties of his profession for scientific 
and literary pursuits. By marrying the daughter of Thomas 
Ridgway he acquired a princely fortune, $1,000,000 of which 
he left for the erection of the Ridgway branch of the Phila¬ 
delphia library. He wrote: Philosophy of the Human Voice 
(1827) ; Analysis of the Human Intellect (1865) ; Rhymes 
of Contrast on Wisdom and Folly (1869). He died in 
Philadelphia, May 26. 

RUSS, JOHN DENISON (1801-81). American physician and 
philanthropist; born at Chebacco (Essex), Mass., in Sep¬ 
tember; died at Pompton, N. J., March 1. He was gradu¬ 
ated from Yale in 1823, studied medicine in the United 
States, in London, and on the Continent. In 1826 he began 
practise in New York, in 1827-30 was in Greece aiding the 
patriots, and upon his return began the first instruction of 
the blind attempted in the United States. He was invited to 
organize the Institution for the Blind in Boston, but pre¬ 
ferred to continue his independent work. In 1832 he became 
superintendent of the New York institution, a post which 
he resigned in 1858. His inventions and improvements for 
the assistance of the blind were widely used. Latterly he 
was active in endeavors to improve prison discipline and 
further the welfare of discharged prisoners. 

S 

SAINTE-CLAIRE DEVILLE, HENRI ETIENNE (1818-81). 

French chemist. He was born in St. Thomas, West Indies, 
in 1851 became professor of chemistry in the Normal School 
at Paris, and shortly afterwards in the Sorbonne. It was 
he who first produced aluminium (1855) and platinum in 
commercial quantities, and demonstrated the general theory 
of the dissociation of chemical compounds at a high tem¬ 
perature. He also discovered (1849) anhydrous nitric acid; 
examined the form of boron and silicon; devised methods 
for fusing platinum, iridium, cobalt, etc.; and produced arti¬ 
ficially sapphire, aluminium, etc. Besides many papers, he 
published De V Aluminium (1859) and Metallurgie du Pla- 
tine (1863). See French Life by Gay (1889). 

SANDS, HENRY BERTON (1830-88). American surgeon; 
born at New York, September 27; died there November 18. 
He was graduated from the College of Physicians and Sur- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


173 


geons in 1856, and later studied abroad. On his return from 
Europe he became demonstrator of anatomy at the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons; in 1869 was appointed pro¬ 
fessor of anatomy, and in 1879 professor of the practice 
of surgery, holding the latter position until his death. He 
was attendant or consulting surgeon for several different 
hospitals, but gradually gave up his hospital work to give 
his attention to a rapidly increasing private practise. He 
became one of the foremost surgeons of the city, and was 
called for consultation in President Garfield’s case. His 
publications include: Aneurism of the Sub Clavian, treated 
by Galvano Puncture (1869) ; Esmarch's Bloodless Method 
(1875) I Treatment of Intussusception by Abdominal 
Method (1877) ; Question of Trephinery in Injuries of the 
Head (1883); and Rupture of the Ligamentum Patellce 
and its Treatment by Operation (1885). 

SAVORY, SIR WILLIAM SCOVELL (1826-95). An English 
surgeon; born in London, and educated at St. Bartholo¬ 
mew’s Hospital, in the College of Surgeons, and at London 
University. In the hospital he was surgical and anatomical 
demonstrator (1849-59), surgeon (1867-91), and governor 
(1891-95). But his most important post was that of lec¬ 
turer on surgery, a double chair, which he occupied with a 
colleague from 1869 to 1879, and alone until 1889, receiving 
£2,000 a year during the latter decade. In the Royal College 
of Surgeons he was president from 1885 to 1889. Savory 
became surgeon extraordinary to the Queen in 1887, and in 
1890 a baronet. His declaration against “Listerism” in 1879 
ranks him with the conservatives and he was a man of 
ability rather than brilliancy. He wrote Life and Death 
(1863). 

SAYRE, LEWIS ALBERT (1820-1900). American surgeon; 
born at Bottle Hill (now Madison), N. J., February 29; 
died in New York, September 21. He was graduated from 
the Transylvania University in 1839, and three years later 
from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. 
He was made professor of orthopedic surgery in the medi¬ 
cal college of Bellevue Hospital in 1861, and professor 
emeritus at its consolidation with the New York University 
in 1898. In 1854 he successfully performed the first opera¬ 
tion in the United States for the removal of the head of the 
femur in hip-joint diseases, and became known as the 
greatest American orthopedist. His original methods and 
his invention of instruments used in the treatment of de¬ 
formed children made his name familiar to the entire 
medical world. He was the author of Practical Manual 


174 


A BIOGRAPH I CAL CYCLOPEDIA 


of the Treatment of Club Foot (1869) ; Orthopedic Sur¬ 
gery and Diseases of the Joints (1876), etc. 

SCARPA, ANTONIO (1747-1832). Italian anatomist; born at 
Friuli, June 13; died in Pavia, October 31. He studied 
medicine at Padua, in 1772 was appointed professor of 
anatomy at Modena, and published in that year his first 
work on the anatomy of the ear, Anatomies Observations de 
Structura Fenestras rotundas Auris. In 1783 he resigned this 
chair to accept a similar one at Pavia, where he published 
his great work, Anatomiccs Disquisitiones de Auditu, etc. 
(1789). At the time of the revolution in Italy he was de¬ 
prived of his professorship in the university on account of 
refusal to take the oath required by the Cisalpine Republic. 
He now published his celebrated work on Aneurisms (1804). 
When Napoleon, after his coronation as King of Italy, ar¬ 
rived at Pavia (1805), and received the officers of the uni¬ 
versity, he inquired after Scarpa. He was informed that he 
had long ceased to be a member of the university, and was 
told the reason. “What,” said Napoleon, “have political 
opinions to do here? Scarpa is an honor to Pavia and to 
any dominions. Let him be honorably restored.” Scarpa 
was the author of several other surgical works besides those 
already mentioned. Most of his works have been translated 
into English and French. 

SCHEELE, CARL WILHELM (1742-86). Chemist; bom at 
Stralsund (then Swedish), he was apprenticed to a chemist 
at Gothenburg, and was afterwards chemist at Malmo, 
Stockholm, Upsala, and Koping. His whole, life was devoted 
to chemical experiment, and he made many discoveries of 
the utmost importance. He discovered hydrofluoric, tartaric, 
benzoic, arsenious, molybdic, lactic, citric, malic, oxalic, 
gallic, and other acids, and separated chlorine, baryta, oxy¬ 
gen (1777), glycerine (1783), and sulphuretted hydrogen. 
He first described the pigment called Scheele’s green, or 
arsenite of copper, and scheelite or tungsten. He showed in 
1777, independently of Priestley, that the atmosphere consists 
chiefly of two gases, one supporting combustion, the other 
preventing it. In 1783 he described prussic acid. His papers 
were Englished by Beddoes (1786), and Nordenskiold pub¬ 
lished his unedited German letters and papers (Stock. 1893). 

SCHNITZLER, JOHANN (1835-93). An Austrian physician; 
famed as a pulmonary specialist; born at Gross-Kanisza, 
Hungary, and educated at Budapest and Vienna. He was 
assistant in Oppolzer’s clinic from 1863 to 1867, and in 1878 
became professor in the University of Vienna. He was the 
principal founder of the Vienna polyclinic. He wrote Pneu- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


175 


matische Behandlung der Lungen und Herzkrankheiten 
(1875) ; Diagnose und Therapie der Laryngo- und Tracheo- 
stenosen (1877) ; and Lungensyphilis und ihr Verhdltnis zur 
Lungenschwindsucht (1880). 

SCHONBEIN, CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH (1799-1868). Chem¬ 
ist; born at Metzingen, Wiirtemburg. From 1828 he was 
professor at Basel, discovered ozone, guncotton, and col¬ 
lodion, and experimented on oxygen. See Life by Hagen- 
bach (1869). 

SCHRODER, KARL (1838-87). A German gynaecologist. He 
was bom at Neustrelitz and educated at Wurzburg and 
Rostock. In Bonn he was assistant to Veit (1864-66) and 
docent, and in Erlangen he was from 1868 to 1876 professor 
and director of the lying-in hospital. From 1876 until his 
death he was professor in Berlin. Fie was a skillful and 
original operator, and the first to practise ovariotomy suc¬ 
cessfully in Germany. He wrote: Lehrbuch der Geburt- 
shilfe (1870; revised by Olshausen and Veit) and Krank- 
heiten der weiblichen Geschlechtsorgane (1874; revised by 
Koltmeier). 

SCHULTZE, MAX SIGISMUND (1825-94). An eminent Ger¬ 
man anatomist and cytologist. He was born at Freiburg 
in Breisgau. After 1845 he studied at Greifswald and Ber¬ 
lin. In 1854 he was appointed adjunct professor in Halle, 
and in 1859 was called to the chair of anatomy in the Uni¬ 
versity of Bonn. His chief works are on turbellarian worms 
(1851); on the Foraminifera of the Adriatic Sea (1854) ; 
on the embryology of various worms and of the lamprey; 
on the mode of termination of the finer nerves in the 
organs of sense; and on the electric organs of fishes; 
but his most notable contribution to general biology was 
his work on the nature of protoplasm and of cells. He 
was the first, after Dujardin, to establish the nature of proto¬ 
plasm of rhizopods and to show that it was the fundamental 
substance of both animals and plants. His results are em¬ 
bodied in his tract Das Protoplasma der Rhizopoden und 
der Pdanzenzellen. Lin Beitrag zur Theorie der Zelle 
(Leipzig, 1863). He adopted Mohl’s term “protoplasm,” 
applied by him to botany alone, and extended it to include 
that of animals. Shultze was also the founder and editor 
of the Archiv fur mikroskopische Anatomie. 

SCHWANN, THEODOR (1810-82). A German physiologist 
and histologist. He was born at Neuss and educated in 
Bonn, Wurzburg, and Berlin. In the Anatomical Museum 
of Berlin, he assisted Johannes Muller from 1834 to 1838, 
and discovered pepsin, made valuable studies on artificial 


176 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

digestion, fermentation, and putrefaction, the organic nature 
of yeast, the mechanism of muscular and arterial contrac¬ 
tion, the double direction of nerves, and the envelop of 
nerve fibres. In 1838-48 he was professor at Louvain, and 
then held a chair at Liege for another decade. Schwann 
made many physiological discoveries, but his most important 
achievement was his foundation of the modern cellular 
theory in Microscopical Investigations on the Accordance 
in the Structure and Growth of Plants and Animals (1839; 
Eng. version, 1847). He wrote Anatomie du corps humain 
for the Brussels Encyclopedic Populaire (1855). 

SEGUIN, EDOUARD (1812-80). A French physician; born in 
Clamecy, January 20. In studying medicine he devoted 
himself chiefly to the training of idiots, and thoroughly in¬ 
vestigated the cause and philosophy of idiocy, and the best 
means of dealing with it. In 1839 he opened the first school 
for young idiots in the Faubourg St. Martin, Paris. He 
was soon able to obtain remarkable results by his system 
of training. In 1844 a commissioner from the French 
Academy of Science examined his plan of training idiotic 
children, and reported that Dr. Seguin had solved this 
problem. He then published his Traitement Moral, Hygiene 
et Education des Idiots (1846), which is accepted as the 
standard authority. After the revolution of 1848 Dr. Seguin 
emigrated to America. Here he visited the schools for 
idiotic children in South Boston and Barre, Mass., and 
Albany, N. Y. After revisiting France twice he settled 
in New York City in 1863, where he later on established 
the Seguin Physiological School for feeble-minded children, 
which still exists. He also enjoyed a high repute as a 
specialist in nervous diseases. The United States Bureau 
of Education sent him as commissioner to the Vienna Ex¬ 
position in 1873. Among his publications in English were: 
Idiocy and Its Treatment by the Physiological Method 
(1866); Medical Thermometry (1871); and Report as Com¬ 
missioner to the Vienna Exposition to the Secretary of 
State (1876). He died in New York, October 28. 

SEQUIN, EDWARD CONSTANT (1843-98). American phy¬ 
sician and neurologist; born at Paris, France; died in New 
York, February 19. He was the son of Dr. Edouard Onesi- 
mus Sequin, and came with his father to America after 
the revolution of 1848. He was educated in the public 
schools of Ohio, began studying medicine with his father in 
1861 and continued it at the College of Physicians and Sur¬ 
geons in New York. He spent two years in the medical 
department of the Union army while enrolled as a student; 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


177 


and contracted a tubercular difficulty, to cure which he 
served among the United States volunteers at Little Rock, 
Ark., during part of 1864-65, and again in New Mexico 
during 1868-69. During the winter of 1869-70 he studied 
nervous diseases under such Parisian specialists as Brown, 
Sequard, Charcot, Ranvier, and Cornil, and on his return 
to New York entered a medical partnership with Dr. W. 
H. Draper. He was appointed pathologist to the Connecti¬ 
cut Hospital for the Insane at its opening, and held the 
post ten years. From 1871 to 1885 he was a member of 
the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
giving lectures on the spinal cord and on nervous dis¬ 
eases. In 1873 he founded a clinic for nervous diseases. 
Apart from these duties he carried on an independent prac¬ 
tise in his specialty, beginning with 1876. He was one of 
the founders of the American Neurological Association, and 
the New York Neurological Association. He bequeathed 
to the Academy of Medicine his large collection of books 
and pamphlets relating to nervous diseases, and to the Col¬ 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons other books and instru¬ 
ments. 

SERVETUS, MICHAEL or Miguel Serveto (about 1511- 
53). Theologian and physician; born at Tudela In Navarre. 
He studied law at Saragossa and Toulouse. He went to 
Italy (1530) in the company of Quintana, confessor to 
Charles V., and next to Germany, meeting Luther and other 
Reformers. But his own views, especially in respect to the 
Trinity—he denied the eternity of the Son—expounded in 
De Trinitatis Brroribus (1531) and other books, were ab¬ 
horrent alike to Reformers and Roman Catholics. In 1536 
he began to study medicine at Paris, and in 1541 became 
physician to the Archbishop of Vienna. Having reprinted 
(i553) some theological tracts, he was denounced to the 
inquisitor at Lyons. Arrested, he escaped from prison, but, 
rashly venturing into Geneva, was again arrested at Calvin’s 
instance, and, after a nine weeks’ trial, was burned, October 
27. He had acquired fame as editor of Ptolemy and by 
his demonstration of the pulmonary circulation of the blood. 
See Calvin, and books by Piinjer (Latin, 1876), Tollin 
(German, 1876-82), and Willis (strongly partisan, 1877). 

SIEBOLD, KARL THEODOR ERNST (1804-85). Anatomist. 
He was professor at Munich, and wrote on the Invertebrata 
(trans. 1857), parthenogenesis, salamanders, and the fresh¬ 
water fishes of central Europe. See Life by A. von Siebold 
(1896). 

SIEBOLD, PHILIPP FRANZ VON (1796-1866). Physician 
12 


178 A BIOGRAPH ICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

and botanist; born at Wurzburg; became sanitary officer 
to the Dutch in Batavia, and, accompanying the Dutch em¬ 
bassy to Japan, made Japan known to the Western world 
by his writings. 

SIMMONS, DUANE (1834-89). An American physician and 
scholar; born at Glens Falls, N. Y., who in 1859 went to 
Japan as medical missionary, but soon after entered the 
service of the Japanese government. In 1862-63, he con¬ 
tinued medical study in Berlin. In 1869 he established the 
Juzen Hospital, instructing voluntary classes of Japanese 
doctors, and showing how cholera should be treated with 
the methods of modern sanitary science. In 1881, his health 
failing he returned to the United States; but in 1887, drawn 
again to Japan, he made a systematic study of Japanese 
feudal institutions. His studies of the Japanese village 
community are of the highest scientific value, and those on 
land tenure and social institutions have been published by 
Wigmore, in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of 
Japan, vol. xix (Yokohama, 1892). 

SIMPSON, SIR JAMES YOUNG (1811-70). Physician; bom 
at Bathgate, June 7. He was a baker’s son, and studied 
medicine at Edinburgh. He took his M.D. in 1832, and in 
1837 became assistant to the professor of pathology; in 1840 
professor of tnidwifery. He is chiefly remembered as hav¬ 
ing popularized the anaesthetic virtues of chloroform (1847). 
In obstetrics his improvements in practise were numerous 
and valuable. He was created a baronet in 1866, and died 
May 6. His works include: Obstetric Memoirs (1856); 
Acupressure (1864) 1 Homoeopathy, Selected Obstetrical 
Works, Ancesthesia, Diseases of Women, and Archoeological 
Essays (1872). See Life by Duns (1873) and a sketch by 
his daughter (1897). 

SIMS, JAMES MARION (1813-83). An American surgeon; 
born in Lancaster County, South Carolina, January 25. He 
was graduated at South Carolina College in 1832, and 
studied medicine in Charleston and Philadelphia, taking his 
degree from Jefferson Medical College in 1835. He prac¬ 
tised first in his native county and then at Montgomery, 
Ala., where he established a reputation as a surgeon by his 
treatment of strabismus, club-foot, lockjaw in infants and 
by the invention of the silver suture for treating vesico¬ 
vaginal fistula and the “Sims speculum.” In 1853 Dr. Sims 
removed to New York City, and there, in the face of oppo¬ 
sition, he opened a hospital for the treatment of diseases of 
women, in 1855, and two years later secured an appropriation 
of $50,000 from the New York legislature for a suitable 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


179 


building. He went to Europe in 1861, and practised in 
Dublin, London, Paris and Brussels, receiving decorations 
from various European countries. In 1868 he returned to 
New York, but at the beginning of the Franco-Prussian 
War he went to Paris, and there organized the Anglo-Amer¬ 
ican ambulance corps. He later returned to New York, 
where he became a member of the board of surgeons of the 
Woman’s Hospital, and was at one time president of the 
American Medical Association. Besides his contributions 
to Medical journals, he published The Story of My Life 
(1884). He died in New York, November 13. 

SKODA, JOSEPH (1805-81). An Austrian physician; born 
at Pilsen, Bohemia. After studying in Vienna, and a short 
practise in Bohemia, he was detailed to the Public Hospital 
in Vienna in 1833, became primary physician in 1841, profes¬ 
sor at the clinic in 1846, and was elected a member of the 
Academy of Science in 1848. His Abhandlung iiber die 
Auskultation und Perkussion (1839; 6th ed. 1864) created an 
epoch in diagnostics, by demonstrating the principle that the 
physical symptoms observed in a patient only indicated cer¬ 
tain physical conditions in his organism, whereupon it de¬ 
veloped upon the rational physician to draw his conclusions 
as to the real internal disease from his pathologic-anatom¬ 
ical experience. This was in opposition to the French doc¬ 
trine, until then prevalent, which interpreted the physical 
symptoms immediately as the signs of a definite process of 
disease. 

SLOANE, SIR HANS (1660-1753). Physician and naturalist; 
bom at Killyleagh, County Down. He was the son of an 
Ulster Scot; studied in London and in France, and settled 
in London as a physician. Already F.R.S., he spent over 
a year (1685-86) in Jamaica, collecting a herbarium of 800 
species. He became secretary to the Royal Society 
(1693), foreign associate of the French Academy (1708), 
a baronet and physician-general to the army (1716), presi¬ 
dent of the College of Physicians (1719-35), and, president 
of the Royal Society and royal physician (1727). His 
museum and library of 50,000 volumes and 3,560 MSS. 
formed the nucleus of the British Museum. His great work 
was the Natural History of Jamaica (1707-25). 

SMILES, SAMUEL (1812-1904). Born at Haddington, De¬ 
cember 23; took his Edinburgh M.D. at twenty, and pub¬ 
lished Physical Education (1838). He practised in Had¬ 
dington, and then settled as a surgeon in Leeds, but be¬ 
came editor of the Leeds Times, secretary of the Leeds and 
Thirsk Railway in 1845, and in 1854 secretary of the South- 


l8o A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

Eastern Railway, retiring in 1866. While at Leeds he met 
George Stephenson, and undertook a Life of him ( 1857 )* 
Self-Help (1859) had an extraordinary success, and has 
been translated into seventeen languages. Henceforward 
Smiles’ career was that of a popular author and compiler. 

SMITH, HENRY HOLLINGSWORTH (1815-90). An Amer¬ 
ican surgeon; born at Philadelphia, Pa. He graduated from 
the medical department of the University of Pennslyvania 
in 1837, studied two years in the hospitals of London, Paris 
and Vienna, and was professor of surgery in the University 
of Pennslyvania from 1855 till 1871, when he became pro¬ 
fessor emeritus. When the Civil War began he was ap¬ 
pointed surgeon-general of Pennsylvania. He very thor¬ 
oughly organized the field hospital service; introduced the 
practise of embalming on the field of battle, and in 1862 
resigned to take up his practise and his work in the univer¬ 
sity. Among his published works are: Minor Surgery 
(1846) ; System of Operative Surgery (2 vols., 1852) ; The 
Treatment of Disunited Fractures hy Means of Artificial 
Limbs (1855) J and Practise of Surgery (2 vols., 1857-63). 

SMITH, JOHN LAWRENCE (1818-83). American chemist 
and physician; born at Charleston, S. C., December 17; 
died in Louisville, Ky., October 12. He was educated at 
the University of Virginia and the South Carolina Medical 
College, studied chemistry in Europe with Liebig and 
Pelouze, and established in 1846 the Medical and Surgical 
Journal of South Carolina. He was appointed bullion as- 
sayer by the State of South Carolina; and in 1846 took 
service with the Turkish government to report upon the cot¬ 
ton culture and the mineral resources of Turkey. He re¬ 
turned to America in 1850 and taught chemistry in the 
medical department of the University of Louisville (1854- 
66). He made one of the largest known collections of 
meteorites, which, after his death, was acquired by Harvard 
University. He received decorations from the French, 
Turkish, and Russian governments; was president of the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science in 
1874, and of the American Chemical Society, 1877; and in 
1879 succeeded Sir Charles Lyell as corresponding member 
of the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of France. The 
more important of his many published papers were issued 
by him as Mineralogy and Chemistry, Original Researches 

( 1873 - 84 ). 

SPRENGEL, KURT (1766-1833). A German physician and 
botanist; born at Boldekow, near Auklam, and educated at 
Halle. In 1789 he was made professor of medicine there, 


OF MEDICAL/ HISTORY 


181 


and in 1797 he was appointed professor of botany as well. 
He published: Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der 
Arzneikunde (1792-1803; 4th ed. 1846); Handbuch der 
Pathologie (1795-97; 4th ed. 1815); Historia Rei Herbaria 
1807-08), Geschichte der Botanik (1817-18), and Neue Ent- 
deckungen in ganzcn Umfange der Pftanzenkunde (1819-22). 

STAHL, GEORG ERNST (1660-1734). Born at Ansbach. He 
became court-physician (1687) at Weimar, professor of 
medicine (1694) at Halle, and body-physician ( 1714 ) to 
the king of Prussia. His Phlogiston theory was expounded 
in Experimenta et Observations Chemicce (1731), and that 
of Animiam in Theoria Medico Vera (1707). 

STENO, NICHOLAS (1638-87). Born at Copenhagen, and 
trained to medicine, he won fame as an inquirer into the 
anatomy of the glands, heart, and brain. In 1667 he settled 
in Florence, turned Roman Catholic, and became physician 
to the grand-duke. He was the first to point out the true 
origin of fossil animals, explain the structure of the earth’s 
crust, and distinguish clearly between stratified and volcanic 
rocks. But, drawn away from natural science, he was made 
a bishop, and in 1677 dispatched to North Germany as vicar- 
apostolic. See Prof. Hughes in Nature (1882). 

STORER, DAVID HUMPHREYS (1804-91). An American 
physician; born in Portland, Me., March 26. He grad¬ 
uated at Bowdoin in 1822; afterward studied medicine at 
Harvard, and began his practise in Boston. He was ap¬ 
pointed professor of obstetrics and medical jurisprudence 
in Harvard Medical School in 1854, and later, dean of that 
school. He remained in that position until 1876; was always 
interested in zoological studies, and published several treat¬ 
ises, among them: Ichthyology of Massachusetts (1839); 
and Fishes of North America (1846). He died in Boston, 
Mass., September 10. 

SUE, MARIE-JOSEPH-EUGENE (1804-59). A master of 
melo-dramatic fiction; born at Paris, December 10. He 
served as an army and naval surgeon in Spain (1823) and 
at Navarino (1828), and worked up his experiences into 
the Byronic and absurd novels Kernock le Pirate, La Sala- 
mandre, etc., as well as the unhistorical Histoire de la 
Marine Franqaise (1835-37), and Histoire de la Marine 
Militaire (1841). His first hit was the too famous Mysteres 
de Paris (1842) ; its successor, Le Juif Errant (1845), was 
no less successful. Later works were: Martin, VEnfant 
Trouve (1846); Les Sept Peches Capitaux (1847-49), and 
Les Mysteres de Peuple (1849) ; the last condemned by the 
courts as immoral and seditious. Sue was elected deputy 


1 82 A BIOGRAPH ICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

for Seine in 1850, and attached himself to the Extreme Left. 
The coup d’etat of December, 1851 drove him into exile. 
He died in Annecy in Savoy, August 3. 

SWAMMERDAM, JAN (1637-85). Entomologist. He was 
born at Amsterdam, practised as a physician there and at 
Leyden, but gave far more attention to the study of insects, 
became straitened for means, and finally was carried away 
by the religious mysticism of Antoinette Bourignon. His 
chief services to science were in the anatomy of bees and 
the metamorphoses of insects. His most important books 
were a treatise on animalcules (1669) and Biblia Natures 
(ed. Boerhaave, 1737-38). 

SWIETEN, GERARD VAN (1700-72). A celebrated Dutch 
physician and scholar; born at Leyden, where, after study¬ 
ing philosophy at Louvain, he pursued medicine under Boer¬ 
haave, whose most distinguished pupil he became. Called 
to Vienna in 1745, as physician in ordinary to Maria 
Theresa, he instilled new life into every branch of science, 
but especially promoted reforms in the study of medicine, 
which, as director of the faculty, he raised to a high stand¬ 
ing through his own teachings as well as by the appoint¬ 
ment of famous specialists to chairs at the university. Re¬ 
forms in the other faculties presently followed, and although 
greatly hampered by the intrigues of the Jesuits, Van 
Swieten held his own against them, here as well as in the 
supervision of censorship, in which considerable authority 
was accorded him as custodian of the Imperial library, and 
of which he was finally appointed chairman in 1759. In 
science he sought his fame as an expositor of his teacher, 
Boerhaave. His Commentaria in Hermanni Boerhaave 
Aphorismos de Cognoscendis et Curandis Morbis (new ed. 
1787-92), hold a permanent place in medical literature. In 
1758 Van Swieten, having saved the life of the Empress, 
was created a baron. 

SYDENHAM, THOMAS (1624-89). An English physician; 
born at Winford Eagle, Dorsetshire; died in London, De¬ 
cember 29. He was educated at Oxford, where, after serv¬ 
ing as an officer in the parliamentary army during the Civil 
War, he became (1648) a fellow of All Souls’ College. He 
studied medicine in France, took his degree of M.D. at 
Cambridge, and about 1660 settled as a physician in Lon¬ 
don, where he rapidly rose to the leading rank. Departing 
from the traditional therapeutics of the profession he di¬ 
rected his medical work to the assisting of nature, upon 
whose recuperative powers he taught reliance. As a diag¬ 
nostician and scientific observer of the phenomena of 


OF MEDIC At HISTORY 


183 


diseases in relation to physical environments he displayed 
remarkable sagacity. He introduced the use of cooling 
remedies in smallpox, and of cinchone in malarial fever. His 
works written in Latin have been often translated. The 
Sydenham Society, named for him, was founded in 1843, 
its object being the printing of medical works in different 
languages. The first which it issued (1846) were those of 
Sydenham himself, in Latin. These were published in 1848 
in an English translation by Greenhil, with a Memoir by 
Latham. 

SYME, JAMES (1799-1870). Surgeon; born in Edinburgh, 
and educated at the university there; in 1818 he announced 
a method of making cloth water-proof, afterwards made 
and patented by Macintosh. In 1823-33 he lectured on 
surgery. In 1831 appeared his treatise on The Excision of 
Diseased Joints; in 1832 his Principles of Surgery. In 1833 
he became professor of clinical surgery. His life abounded 
in controversies. Syme, who had no superior either as 
operator or as teacher, wrote further on pathology, stricture, 
fistula, incised wounds, etc. See Memoir by Paterson. 

T 

TAGLIACOZZI, GASPARO (1546-99). Bologna professor of 
anatomy and surgery. He first performed the Taliacotian 
or rhinoplastic operation for the making of new noses. 

TAYLOR, ALFRED SWAINE (1806-80). An English physi¬ 
cian and toxicologist; born at Northfleet, Kent, in December. 
He was professor of chemistry in Guy’s Hospital, London, 
and its first professor of medical jurisprudence. He wrote 
Photogenic Drawing (1840) ; A Manual of Medical Juris¬ 
prudence (1843) ; Poisons in Relation to Medical Jurispru¬ 
dence and Medicine (1848) ; Poisoning by Strychnia (1856) ; 
Principles and Practice of Medical Jurisprudence (1865) ; 
in conjunction with Dr. W. T. Brande, Manual of Chem¬ 
istry and edited the Medical Gazette. He died May 27. 

TAYLOR, CHARLES FAYETTE (1827-99). A celebrated 
American orthopaedic surgeon. He was born in Williston, 
Vt., and educated at the University of Vermont. In the 
year 1857 he was in London, studying the Swedish move¬ 
ment-cure under Roth. Subsequently he settled in New York 
City, and was one of the first to introduce the movement 
cure into this country. Dr. Taylor early became a specialist 
in orthopaedic surgery, in which he was very successful. He 
was especially skilled in devising original appliances to meet 
deformities. Among his inventions are the Taylor splint 


184 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


for treatment of curvature of the spine and the long ex¬ 
tension hip splint. He was the founder of the New York 
Orthopaedic Dispensary and Hospital, of which he was the 
executive surgeon for many years. Taylor established in 
New York City an institute for the treatment of deformities, 
which was successfully operated for many years previously 
to the organization of the hospital. His publications in¬ 
clude : Principles and Practice of Hygieno-Medical Science, 
with George H. Taylor (1857); The Movement Cure 
(1858) ; The Theory and Practice of the Movement Cure, 
or the Treatment of Lateral Curvature of the Spine, etc., 
(1861) ; The Mechanical Treatment of Angular Curvature 
or Potts’ Disease of the Spine (1865) ; Spinal Irritation or 
the Causes of Backache Among American Women (1864) : 
Infantile Paralysis and Its Attendant Deformities (1867), 
and On the Mechanical Treatment of Diseases of the Hip 
Joint (1873). 

TAYLOR, ISAAC EBENEZER (1812-89). An American phy¬ 
sician; born at Philadelphia, April 25; died in New York, 
October 30. He was graduated from Rutgers College in 
1830, and in medicine from the University of Pennsylvania 
in 1834. He subsequently studied in Europe, settled in New 
York, and had charge of the department of women’s 
diseases at the City, Eastern, Northern, and Demitt dispen¬ 
saries, for seven years each. In 1851 he was elected physi¬ 
cian to Bellevue Hospital, where he initiated important re¬ 
forms, secured the foundation of the hospital college, and 
became its head in 1861.. He was subsequently president of 
the medical board of the hospital; attending physician and 
head of the medical board of the Charity Hospital. He was 
obstetrical physician to the Maternity Hospital. He was 
the first American to introduce uterine ausculation, helped 
introduce the hypodermic method of treatment by morphia 
and strychnia, and was the earliest in this country to use the 
speculum in diseases of women and children. He put out a 
monograph on this subject in 1841. 

THENARD, LOUIS JACQUES (1777-1857). French chemist; 
born at Louptiere, Champagne, May 4; died in Paris, June 
21. He studied chemistry in Paris under Fourcroy and 
Vauquelin, becoming the assistant of the latter, who pro¬ 
cured him a professorship at the College de France (1804). 
Subsequently he succeeded Fourcroy in the chair of chem¬ 
istry at the Ecole Polytechnique, as well as in his seat in 
the academy. In 1825 he was made a baron by Charles X., 
and in 1832 a peer of France by Louis Philippe. It was 
while attempting to verify a theory he had propounded in 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


185 

the lecture-room that he made his important discovery of 
the peroxide of hydrogen. He worked with the chemist 
Gay-Lussac, and made noteworthy original investigations, 
including those of the compound ethers, of bile, and of 
sebacic acid. He discovered the method of preparation of 
a cheap cobalt blue, since known as “Thenard’s blue.” His 
chief publications are a Treatise on Elementary Chemistry 
(4 vols. 1813-16) ; and Physico-Chemical Researches (with 
Gay-Lussac, 1816). 

THOMSON, THOMAS (1773-1852). A Scotch chemist; born 
at Perthshire, Scotland, April 12. He was educated at St. 
Andrews University, and studied medicine at the University 
of Edinburgh. In 1802 he became editor of Mill’s Literary 
Journal; was a teacher and editor for a number of years; 
and in 1818 became professor of chemistry in the University 
of Edinburgh; edited Annals of Philosophy (1813-22), and 
wrote The Elements of Chemistry (1810); Travels in 
Sweden and Lapland (1813) ; An Attempt to Establish the 
First Principles of Chemistry by Experiment (1825) ; and 
Outlines of Mineralogy, Geology, and Mineral Analysis 
(1836). He died at Kilmun, Argyleshire, July 2. 

TODD, ROBERT BENTLEY (1809-60). An Irish physician; 
born at Dublin, and educated there at Trinity College. In 
London he lectured on anatomy for a short time at the 
Aldersgate Street School of Medicine and then went up to 
Oxford. About this time he projected the Cyclopcedia of 
Anatomy and Physiology —a work which did much to ad¬ 
vance the study of comparative and microscopic anatomy. 
The first number was published in 1835 and the entire 
work was completed in 1859. He was appointed professor 
of physiology and general and morbid anatomy at King’s 
College, London, in 1836. In 1849 he gave the Lumleian 
lectures and in 1853 he resigned his professorship in King’s 
College. He was known for his pioneer work in the treat¬ 
ment of fevers and inflammations. His publications in¬ 
clude: Gulstonian Lectures on the Physiology of the Stom¬ 
ach (1839) ; Practical Remarks on Gout, Rheumatic Fever, 
and Chronic Rheumatism of the Joints (1843) ; Descrip¬ 
tion and Physiological Anatomy of the Brain, Spinal Cord, 
and Ganglions (1845); Lumleian Lectures on the Pathology 
and Treatment of Delirium and Coma (1850) ; and Chemicdl 
Lectures (3 vols., 1854-59, and 1 vol. 1861). 

TURNBULL, LAURENCE (1821-1900). An American phy¬ 
sician; born in Sholts, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He gradu¬ 
ated at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, in 1842, and 
for a while was occupied in the manufacture of chemicals. 


186 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


In 1845 he graduated at the Jefferson Medical College and 
was appointed house physician of the Philadelphia Hospital. 
He lectured on chemistry at the Franklin Institute from 1848 
to 1850 and from 1859 to 1887 was attached to the Harvard 
Hospital, in charge of eye and ear diseases, of which he be¬ 
came a well-known specialist. During the Civil War he 
served as a volunteer surgeon. Among his writings, some of 
which passed through many editions, are: Defective and Im¬ 
paired Vision (1859); Hints and Observations on Military 
Hygiene (1862) ; Imperfect Hearing and Hygiene of the Ear 
(1871); The Nature and Treatment of Nervous Deafness 
(1874) 1 A Clinical Manual of the Diseases of the Ear 
(1881 ); A Manual of Ancesthetic Agents and Their Employ¬ 
ment in the Treatment of Disease (1885). 

U 

URE, ANDREW (1778-1857). A Scotch chemist; born in 
Glasgow. He was educated at Glasgow University, prose¬ 
cuted his medical studies at Edinburgh, and received his 
M.D. at Glasgow (1801) ; appointed to the chair of chem¬ 
istry at the Andersonian University, Glasgow (1802) ; was 
the first astronomer to the Glasgow observatory, which 
his efforts helped to establish (1809). The literary works 
for which he is chiefly distinguished are his Dictionary of 
Chemistry (1821) and his Dictionary of Arts , Manufactures 
and Mines (1839), many revised editions of which have 
been published since. He died in London, January 2. 

V 

VAN BUREN, WILLIAM HOLME (1819-83). An American 
surgeon who was born in Philadelphia. He studied two 
years in Yale; graduated at the medical department of the 
University of Pennsylvania in 1840. Entered the army and 
served in Florida and on the Canadian frontier; was on the 
staff of Bellevue Hospital from 1849 till 1852; was professor 
of anatomy in the Medical College of New York University 
from 1852 till 1866; and from 1866 till shortly before his 
death occupied the chair of surgery in Bellevue Hpspital 
Medical College. He translated Bernard and Hiiette’s 
Operative Surgery and Medical Anatomy (1855), and 
Morel’s Compendium of Human Histology (1861). He also 
published: Contributions to Practical Surgery (1865); Lec¬ 
tures on Diseases of the Rectum (1874) 1 and, with Dr. E. L. 
Keyes, Text-book on Diseases of the Urinogenital Organs 
with Syphilis (1874). 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


i8 7 

VESALIUS, ANDREAS (1514-64). Anatomist. He was 
born at Brussels, of a family that had come from Wesel, 
was surgeon to the imperial army in the Low Countries, 
and professor of anatomy at Padua, Pisa, Bologna, and 
Basel. In 1544 he became physician to Charles V. He 
raised such ill-will by practising the dissection of human 
subjects and by opposing Galen that he withdrew from 
court, and perished at Zante on his voyage back from a 
pilgrimage to Jerusalem. His De Corporis Humani Fabrica 
(i543) marks an epoch in anatomy. See German work by 
Roth (1892) and G. M. Cullen in the Dublin Medical Jour¬ 
nal (1894). 

VIEUSSENS, RAYMOND (1641-about 1720). A French an¬ 
atomist; born in Rouergue, and educated at Montpellier. 
In 1671 he was appointed physician in the Hopital de Saint 
Eloi and there devoted himself to the study of neurology. 
His Neurographia Universalis (1685), with an account of 
his important researches on the anatomy of the brain and 
of the spinal column, won him membership in the French 
Academy of Sciences and in the Royal Society of London. 
The “valve of Vieussens” is a name still applied to the 
superior medullary velum, which he discovered. 
VILLALOBOS, FRANCISCO LOPEZ DE (about 1473-1545). 
A Spanish physician and author; born in Toledo, of a Jew¬ 
ish family. He studied medicine, became a convert to 
Christianity, and physician to Charles V. His works in¬ 
clude a translation of Plautus’s Amphitruo, the didactic 
books Problemas (1515) and Tratado de los tres grandes 
vicios, the poems Cancion and El sumario de medecina 
( 1538 ). 

VIRCHOW, RUDOLF (1821-1902). German scientist; born 
at Schivelbein, Prussia, October 13; died in Berlin Septem¬ 
ber 5. He studied medicine in Berlin in 1839-43, and in the 
latter year became a surgeon’s assistant. From 1844 to 1846 
he was assistant at the Charite Hospital, and in the latter 
year became prosector there. He qualified in 1847 as a lec¬ 
turer at the University of Berlin, and in that year also he 
was associated with Benno Reinhardt in founding the 
Archiv fur pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und 
fur klinische Medizin, world famous as “Virchow’s 
Archives,” which he edited alone from Reinhardt’s death 
in 1852 till his own. He made himself known as a pro¬ 
nounced democrat in the year of the revolution, 1848, and 
his political activity caused the government to remove him 
(1849) from his prosectorship, but he was soon reinstated, 
and accepted the chair of pathological anatomy at Wurzburg. 


188 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


In 1852 he became joint editor of the Cannstatt reports on 
the progress of medicine, which he continued in conjunction 
with others till his death. In 1856 he returned to Berlin as 
professor of pathological anatomy, general pathology, and 
therapeutics, and director of the recently founded patho¬ 
logical institute. He became a member of the Municipal 
Council of Berlin in 1859, and began his career as a civic 
reformer. Elected to the Prussian Diet in 1862, he became 
leader of the Radical or Progressive party; and in 1880-93 
he was a member of the Reichstag. Virchow was a deter¬ 
mined opponent of Bismarck’s policy, and in 1865 was chal¬ 
lenged to a duel by the “man of blood and iron.” He 
exercised especial influence in matters relating to public 
health, and during the wars of 1866 and 1870-71 he took an 
active part in organizing the army sanitary services. Dur¬ 
ing his membership of 40 years in the Berlin Municipal 
Council he was active in promoting the sanitary improve¬ 
ment of the city. In 1870 he assisted in founding the 
Deutsche and Berliner Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, Eth¬ 
nology, und Urgeschichte, of which he was several times 
president, and in 1879 be made a journey to the site of 
Troy, described in Beitrdge zur Landeskunde in Troas 
(1879) an d Alttrojanische Grdber und Schddel (1882). He 
visited England in 1893 and delivered the Croonian lecture 
to the Royal Society on “The Place of Pathology in Biologi¬ 
cal Studies,” receiving on the occasion the honorary degree 
of D.C.L. from Oxford. In 1898 he delivered the Huxley 
lecture in London, his subject being “Recent Advances in 
Physiology.” Virchow founded cellular pathology; was 
scarcely less distinguished in archaeology and anthropology, 
and was the author of many important works, among which 
are: Handbuch der speciellen Pathologie und Therapie 
(1854-76), prepared in collaboration with others; Vorles- 
ungen iiber Cellular pathologie in ihrer Begriindung auf 
physiologischer und pathologischer Gewebelehre (1859), his 
chief work, forming in the 4th edition the first volume of 
Vorlesungen iiber Pathologie (1862-71); Vier Reden iiber 
Leben und Kranksein (1862); Ueber den Hungertyphus 
(1868) ; Ueber einige Merkmale niederer Menschenrassen 
am Schddel (1875) 1 Beitrdge zur physischen Anthropologie 
der Deutschen (1876) ; Die Freiheit der Wissenschaft im 
modernen Staat (1877); Gesammelte Abhandlungen aus 
dem Gebiete der offentlichen Medizin und der Seuchenlehre 
(1879) 1 etc. It was in fulfilment of the desires of Virchow 
that the German government erected in Berlin the Patho¬ 
logical Institute and Museum, the greatest institution of its 
kind in the world. Consult his Life by Beecher (1901), 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


189 


W 

WAKLEY, THOMAS (1795-1862). An English surgeon and 
reformer; born at Membury, Devonshire. He studied medi¬ 
cine in the Borough Hospitals in London and at a private 
school of anatomy founded by Edward Grainger. For sev¬ 
eral years he practised in London, and then in 1823 founded 
a weekly medical journal called the Lancet, through which 
he made many bitter enemies, but accomplished much good. 
From 1835 till 1852 he was a member of the House of Com¬ 
mons, and carried through many reforms. In 1851 he began 
in the Lancet a crusade against adulterated foods which re¬ 
sulted in legislation to correct the evil. 

WARREN, JOHN COLLINS (1778-1856). An American sur¬ 
geon ; born in Boston, Massachusetts, August 1; graduated 
at Harvard in 1797; in 1800 studied chemistry in Edinburgh; 
in 1801 attended the lectures of Vauquelin, Cuvier and 
Desfontaines in Paris; in 1802 began to practise in Boston; 
from 1806 to 1815 was adjunct professor of anatomy and 
surgery in Harvard Medical School; professor (1815-47), 
and emeritus professor (1847-56). He died in Boston, May 
4. In 1803 he was joint editor of the Monthly Anthology; 
in 1811 assisted in founding the New England Journal of 
Medicine and Surgery, and in 1828 founded and edited the 
Boston Medical and Surgical Journal. He was one of the 
founders of the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1820, 
and of the McLean Asylum for the Insane. For many years 
he was president of the Boston Society of Natural History. 
He was the first to operate for hernia and aneurism, and in 
1846 successfully used anaesthetics in surgical operations. 
He contributed to scientific journals and published numerous 
and valuable monographs relating to surgery, palaeontology, 
and the use of chloroform and ether. 

WATSON, ROBERT (1746-1838). Born at Elgin; took his 
M.D. in Scotland, and was Lord George Gordon’s secretary. 
He fought for American independence, was president of 
the Revolutionary Corresponding Society, state prisoner for 
two years in Newgate, Napoleon’s tutor in English, and 
president of the Scottish College at Paris. He unearthed 
the Stuart papers at Rome, and ended by strangling himself 
in a London tavern. See Bishop Forbes in Proc. Soc. Ant. 
Scot, for December, 1867. 

WATTS, HENRY (1815-1884). An English chemist; born 
in London, January 20. He was educated to scientific pur¬ 
suits; became demonstrator of chemistry at the University 
College, London; librarian to the Chemical Society (1850); 


190 A BIOGRAPH ICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

editor of its Journal (1861). He translated Gmelin’s Hand- 
buch der Chemie (18 vols., 1848-55); but is better known 
by his Dictionary of Chemistry, based on that of Dr. Ure 
(5 vols., 1863-68), supplements to which were issued (1872- 
1875, 1881), and a new edition by Morley and Muir (4 
vols., 1889-94). He died in London, June 30. 

WEBER, ERNST HEINRICH (1795-1878). From 1818 pro- 
fessor of anatomy and physiology at Leipzig; made import 
tant researches on the senses. Wilhelm Eduard Weber 
(1804-91), his brother, from 1831 professor of physics at Got¬ 
tingen, was one of the seven professors deposed in 1837 for 
their protest against the king’s revocation of the liberal con¬ 
stitution. He was associated with Gauss in his researches 
on electricity and magnetism. See monograph by Riecke 
(1892). 

WELLS, SIR THOMAS SPENCER (1818-97). An English 
surgeon and ovariotomist; born at Saint Albans (Hertford¬ 
shire), and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and at 
Saint Thomas’s Hospital, London. In 1841 he was admitted 
to the Royal College of Surgeons, and in that institution 
subsequently held all the principal offices. After serving in 
the Naval Hospital at Malta, he studied under Magendie in 
Paris, and in 1853 established himself as an ophthalmic sur¬ 
geon in London. He was chosen surgeon at the Samaritan 
Free Hospital for Women and Children (1854). At the 
Samaritan Hospital he began the work in abdominal surg¬ 
ery which made his name famous. In 1858 he first per¬ 
formed the discredited operation of ovariotomy. In spite 
of much opposition, the method was finally accepted by the 
profession in 1864, and by 1880 Wells had performed his 
thousandth operation. For his achievements Wells was 
elected to the King’s and Queen’s College of Ireland, and 
to the Irish Royal College of Surgeons, and received many 
other honors. He was one of the first advocates of crema¬ 
tion in England and was largely instrumental in obtaining 
countenance for that system. He published: Practical Ob¬ 
servations on Gout and Its Complications (1854); Cancer 
Cures and Cancer Curers (i860) ; Diseases of the Ovaries; 
Their Diagnosis and Treatment (1865-72; also Leipzig, 
1866-74, and U. S. A.) ; On Ovarian and Uterine Tumors; 
Their Diagnosis and Treatment (1882; also Milan, 1882); 
Diagnosis and Surgical Treatment of Abdominal Tumors 
(1885; also Paris, 1886). 

WIGHT, ORLANDO WILLIAMS (1824-88). An American 
author; bom at Centerville, N. Y., February 19; educated at 
Westfield Academy and at the Rochester Collegiate Insti- 


OR MEDICAL HISTORY 


191 

tute. After teaching Latin and Greek in Genoa Academy, 
and mathematics and languages in Aurora Academy, he re¬ 
moved to New York, where he studied theology, though he 
never connected himself with any denomination. He after¬ 
ward studied medicine, and was appointed Wisconsin state 
geologist and surgeon-general in 1874. He served as health- 
officer for the city of Milwaukee, Wis. (1877-82), and for 
the city of Detroit, Mich. (1882-88). He received the 
degree of LL.D. from Yale University. Besides contribut¬ 
ing to The North American Review, The New Englander 
and other magazines, he published a large number of works, 
including The Romance of Abelard and Heloise (1853; en¬ 
larged ed. 1861) ; The Philosophy of Sir William Hamilton; 
translations of Victor Cousin’s Course of the History of 
Modern Philosophy (1852) ; and Lectures on the True, the 
Beautiful and the Good (1854); and Standard French 
Classics (1859), in 12 volumes. He also assisted Mary L. 
Booth in the translation of Henri Martin’s History of 
France (1863). He died in Detroit, October 19. 

WILLIS, THOMAS (1621-75). An English anatomist and 
physician; born at Great Bedwin, Wiltshire. He was grad¬ 
uated in 1839 at Oxford, where he began practise in 1846. 
He fought as a Royalist in the Revolution, studied medicine 
during the Protectorate, and at the Restoration was made 
Sedleian professor of natural philosophy at Oxford. • He 
afterwards settled in London, where he became a founder 
of the Royal Society, and in 1666 he became physician in 
ordinary to Charles II. Willis made important medical dis¬ 
coveries concerning the brain—a system of connecting 
arteries at the base of the brain is called the “circle of 
Willis” after him. It is claimed that he first suggested 
the possibility of localization of function in the brain, and 
published two treatises on the subject: Anatomy of the 
Brain (1664) ; and Pathology of the Brain and Nervous 
System (1667). He was buried in Westminster Abbey. 
Besides many works, he published Cerebri Anatome, cui 
Accessit Nervorum Descriptio et Usus (London, 1664); 
Pathologies Cerebri, etc. (Amsterdam, 1668) ; Affectionum 
quee Dicuntur Hysterics et Hypochondriacs Pathologia 
Spasmodica Vindicata (Leyden, 1671) ; De Anima Brutorum 
(London, 1672). His complete works, Opera Omnia, were 
published in Geneva (1676), and translated into English in 
London (1684). 

WILSON, SIR ERASMUS (1809-84). Was a skilful dissector 
at the College of Surgeons in London, but was best known 
as a specialist on skin diseases. He published Anatomist's 


192 


A BIOGRAPHICAL, CYCLOPEDIA 


Vademecum, Book of Diseases of the Skin, Report on Lep¬ 
rosy, and Egypt of the Past. The great wealth he acquired 
by his practise he bestowed largely in benefactions to the 
poor and to science, and in promoting Egyptian research. 
He brought Cleopatra’s Needle to London in 1878 at a cost 
of £10,000. He was president of the College of Surgeons, 
and was knighted in 1881. 

WILSON, GEORGE (1818-59). Chemist, younger brother of 
Sir Daniel Wilson, lectured on chemistry, and from 1855 
was professor of Technology in Edinburgh University. He 
was also director of the Industrial Museum. He wrote 
Text-hook of Chemistry (1850), Life of Cavendish (1851), 
Life of Dr. John Reid (1852), Researches in Color-blind¬ 
ness (1855), The Five Gateways of Knowledge (1856), 
Counsels of an Invalid (1862), and Religio Chemici (1862). 
See Memoir by his sister (new ed. 1862). 

WINSLOW, FORBES BENIGNUS (1810-74). English alien¬ 
ist; born at London, of a Massachusetts family, in August; 
died at Brighton, Sussex, March 3. He came to this coun¬ 
try in early life, studied medicine in New York, was gradu¬ 
ated from the College of Surgeons, London, in 1835, and 
took his M.D. at Aberdeen. Having after 1830 paid special 
attention to the study of insanity, he opened a private asy¬ 
lum at Hammersmith, and later another in London, and 
came in time to be a supreme authority on all relating to 
diseases of the brain. He founded and edited the Quarterly 
Journal of Psychological Medicine and Mental Pathology 
(1848) and the Medical Critic (1861). He was the jurid¬ 
ical and president of the Medical Society of London 
(1853), and a member of numerous scientific bodies. He 
published: The Application of Phrenology to the Elucida¬ 
tion and Cure of Insanity (1831); Anatomy of Suicide 
(1840) ; Plea of Insanity in Criminal Cases (1843) ; Notes 
on the Lunacy Act (1845); Softening of the Brain (1849) > 
Lethsonian Lectures on Insanity (1854); Obscure Diseases 
of the Brain and Disorders of the Mind (i860; 4th ed. 
1868) ; Light; Its Influence on Life and Health (1867) ; etc. 

WISTAR, CASPER (1761-1818). American physician; born 
at Philadelphia, September 13; died there January 22. He 
attended the medical department of the University of Penn¬ 
sylvania in 1782, subsequently studied medicine at the Uni¬ 
versity of Edinburgh, and returned to the United States in 
1787. He was professor of chemistry and the Institutes of 
Medicine at the College of Philadelphia (1789-92). In the 
latter year that institution was united with the medical de¬ 
partment of the University of Pennsylvania, and he was 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


193 


there adjunct professor of anatomy, midwifery, and surgery 
(1792-1808) ; then becoming professor of anatomy and hold¬ 
ing that chair till his death. He was the first to show that 
the posterior portion of the ethmoid bone was attached to 
the triangular bones. He opened his house once a week for 
meetings of students, travelers, scientists and citizens, and 
these symposiums continued long after his death, and were 
known as the Wistar parties. Wistar became a member of 
the American Philosophical Society in 1787, and succeeded 
Thomas Jefferson as its president in 1815. He was the 
author of A System of Anatomy, for the Use of Students of 
Medicine. 

WOHLER, FRIEDRICH (1800-82). A German chemist, whose 
artificial production of urea in 1828 marked a new era in 
organic chemistry. 

WOLCOT, DR. JOHN, “Peter Pindar” (1738-1819). Born at 
Dodbrooke, Devon; studied medicine for seven years, took 
his M.D. at Aberdeen (1767), and, going to Jamaica, be¬ 
came physician-general of the island. He returned to Eng¬ 
land to take orders, but soon started medical practise at 
Truro. Here he discovered the talents of young Opie, and 
with him in 1780 removed to London, to devote himself to 
writing audacious squibs and satires in verse. His sixty or 
seventy poetical pamphlets (1778-1818) include The Lousiad, 
The Apple-dumplings and a King, Whitbread's Brewery 
Visited by their Majesties, Bossy and Piossi, and Lyrical 
Odes on the Royal Academy Exhibitions. Witty and fluent, 
but coarse and ephemeral, they have long since outlived their 
great vogue. See Blackwood’s Magasine for July, 1868. 

WOLFF, KASPAR FRIEDRICH (1733-94). A German anat¬ 
omist and physiologist; born in Berlin and educated there 
and at Halle. During the Seven Years’ War he was actively 
employed in the Silesian hospitals. Unable to establish him¬ 
self in Germany, in 1766 he accepted an appointment in the 
Academy of Sciences at Saint Petersburg, making that city 
his residence for the remainder of his life. Wolff will be 
remembered for combating at the age of twenty-six, in his 
Theoria Generations, the preformation views then preva¬ 
lent. But it was not until after Wolff’s death that he ob¬ 
tained proper recognition through the translations of Meckel 
and the writings of Oken. His chief works are: Theoria 
Generationis (1759; German trans., Theorie von der Gen¬ 
eration, Berlin, 1764) ; De Formationne Intestinorum (1768; 
trans., into German by Meckel as Ueber die Bildung des 
Darmkanals im hebriiteten Huhnchen, Halle, 1812). Many 
13 


194 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


of his unpublished writings are preserved as manuscripts in 
the library of the Saint Petersburg Academy. 

WOLLASTON, WILLIAM HYDE (1766-1828). Chemist and 
natural philosopher; born at East Dereham, Norfolk, 
August 6; the second son of the Rev. Francis Wollas¬ 
ton (1731-1815), rector of Chiselhurst, and an astronomer. 
He went to Caius College, Cambridge, took his M.D. in 
1793, and gained a fellowship. Starting practise as a phy¬ 
sician at Bury St. Edmunds in 1789, he soon removed to 
London; but being beaten in a competition for the post of 
physician to St. George’s Hospital in 1800, he vowed to 
devote himself to scientific research. His researches are pre¬ 
eminently fruitful both in chemistry and in optics. He dis¬ 
covered new compounds connected with the production of 
gouty and urinary concretions; and in the ore of platinum 
distinguished two new metals, palladium (1804) and rho¬ 
dium (1805). By his method of rendering platinum malle¬ 
able he made £30,000; and some other practical discoveries 
were also highly lucrative. His contributions to optics were 
the reflecting Goniometer, the Camera Lucida, the discovery 
of the dark lines in the solar spectrum and of the invisible 
rays beyond the violet, and an immensity of valuable obser¬ 
vations on refraction. He did much to establish the theory 
of definite proportions, and demonstrated the identity of 
galvanism and electricity. He was elected fellow of the 
Royal Society (1793), its second secretary (1806), and a 
fellow of the Astronomical Society (1828). He died De¬ 
cember 22. See his thirty-nine “Memoirs” in the Philo¬ 
sophical Trans, for 1809-29, and George Wilson’s Religio 
Chemici ( T 862). 

WOOD, GEORGE BACON (1797-1879). An American chem¬ 
ist and author; born in Greenwich, N. J., March 13; and 
educated in New York, also at the Pennsylvania University, 
where he graduated in 1815. In 1817 he was licensed to 
practise medicine, and for the two years next succeeding, 
delivered a series of lectures on chemistry, in Philadelphia; 
from the latter period until i860 was continuously employed 
as a professor of chemistry in the Pennsylvania University 
and Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. He also provided 
for the maintenance of five professorships in the former 
institution, and by his will directed that a sum of money 
should be appropriated to the support of a ward in the Hahn 
Hospital, Philadelphia. He was the author (in conjunction 
with Professor H. Bache) of the United States Dispen¬ 
satory, and of numerous works on materia medica; also of a 
History of the University of Pennsylvania (1827). He died 
in Philadelphia, March 30. 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


195 


WOODWARD, JOSEPH JANVIER (1833-84). An American 
surgeon; born in Philadelphia, October 30; graduated at the 
University of Pennsylvania medical department in 1853; 
practised in Philadelphia and was placed in charge of the 
surgical clinics in his alma mater; served throughout the 
Civil War, first in the field, and later in the surgeon-gen¬ 
eral’s office in Washington, attaining the rank of lieutenant- 
colonel. He made a special study of microscopy and was 
given the rank of major in the regular army. He was a 
consulting physician in attendance upon President Garfield 
when the latter was dying, and was a member of the 
National Academy of Sciences. He was a constant investi¬ 
gator and contributed numerous papers to scientific publica¬ 
tions. Among his collected writings is Chief Camp Diseases 
of the U. S. Armies (1863). He died August 17. 

WUNDERLICH, KARL AUGUST (1815-77). A German phy¬ 
sician; born at Sulzam-Neckar. He was educated at Stutt¬ 
gart, Tubingen, and Paris. In 1846 he was appointed pro¬ 
fessor in the University of Tubingen and director of its 
clinic, and in 1850 he accepted a call to Leipzig, where he 
carried on his important investigations of temperatures. The 
Archiv fur physiologische Heilkunde, founded by him in 
1841, became the organ of the most advanced medical 
thought. Wunderlich published Versuch einer patholo- 
gischen Physiologie des Blutes (1844) ; Handbuch der Pa- 
thologie und Therapie (1846-54) ; Grundriss der speziellen 
Pathologie und Therapie (1858); Geschichte der Medizin 
(1859) ; and Das Verhalten der Eigenivurme in Krankheiten 
(1868). 

WURTZ, CHARLES ADOLPHE (1817-84). French chemist; 
born at Strassburg. He wrote numerous works, of which 
The Atomic Theory (1880), Modern Chemistry (4th ed. 
1885), etc., have been translated. See Life by Gautier 
(1884). 

Y 

YOUNG, JAMES (1811-83). Of paraffin fame, was the son 
of a Glasgow joiner, and himself for a while one, but at¬ 
tended classes in chemistry, etc., at Anderson’s College, and 
in 1832 became assistant to Prof. Graham. In 1837 he ob¬ 
tained a post in University College, London. As manager 
of chemical-works near Liverpool (1839) and near Man¬ 
chester (1843) he discovered cheaper methods of producing 
stannate of soda and chlorate of potash; and it was his 
experiments (1847-50) which led to the manufacture of 
paraffin-oil and solid paraffin on a large scale. 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


196 

YOUNG, THOMAS (1773-1829). Physicist; born of Quaker 
parentage at Milverton, Somerset, studied medicine at Lon¬ 
don, Edinburgh, Gottingen, and Cambridge, and started as 
doctor in London in 1800, but devoted himself to scientific 
research, and in 1801 became professor of Natural Phil¬ 
osophy to the Royal Institution. His Lectures (1807) ex¬ 
pounded the doctrine of interference, which established the 
undulatory theory of light. He was secretary to the Royal 
Society, and did valuable work in insurance, haemodynamics, 
and Egyptology. See Life by Peacock (1855) and Prof. 
Tyndall’s New Fragments (1892). 

Z 

ZENKER, FRIEDRICH ALBERT VON (1825-98). A Ger¬ 
man physician, celebrated for his discovery of trichiniasis. 
He was born in Dresden, and was educated in Leipzig and 
Heidelberg. Attached to the city hospital of Dresden in 
1851, he added, in 1855, the duties of professor of patholog¬ 
ical anatomy and general pathology in the surgico-medical 
academy of that city. In 1862 he became professor of path¬ 
ological anatomy and pharmacology at Erlangen. Three 
years afterwards he assumed, with Ziemssen, the editorship 
of the Deutsches Archiv fiir klinische Medizin. In 1895 he 
retired from active service. His important discovery of 
the danger of trichinae dates from i860. In that year he 
published Ueher die Trichinenkrankheit de Menschen (in 
vol. xviii of Virchow’s Archiv). This was followed by 
Beitrdge zur normalen und pathologischen Anatomie der 
Lungen (1862); Ueber Staubinhalationskrankheiten der 
Lungen (1866); Die Krankheiten der Oesophagus (in vol. 
vii. of Ziemssen’s Handbuch der speziellen Pathologie und 
Therapie, 1877). 

ZIEMSSEN, HUGO WILHELM VON (1829-1902). A Ger¬ 
man physician; born in Greifswald. He studied there, at 
Berlin, and at Wurzburg. In 1863 he was called to Erlangen 
as professor of pathology and director of the clinic, and in 
1874 to Munich as director of the general hospital. He 
made advances in electro-therapeutics, introduced the cold 
water treatment for typhoid fever and lung inflammation, 
and became an authority on diseases of the larynx and 
digestive canal. At the university he founded an institute 
for clinical medicine, whose valuable reports he published 
(1884-93). He wrote: Die Blektricitdt in der Medizin 
(1857; 5th ed. 1887) ; Pleuritis und Pneumonie im Kindes- 
alter (1862) ; Die Kaltwassbehandlung des Typhus (with 
Immermann, 1870); Ueber die Behandlung des Magenges- 


OF medical history 


197 


chwiirs (1871); Klinische Vortrdge (1887-1900). In collab¬ 
oration with prominent specialists he published his great 
Handbuch der speciellen Pathologic und Therapie (17 vols., 
3d ed. 1886 et seq.), and the Handbuch dcr allgcmcinen 
Therapie (1880-84), both of great value to the entire science 
of medicine. 



THE 


HISTORY OF MEDICINE. 


FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE NINETEENTH 

CENTURY. 


BY J. BOSTOCK, M.D., F.R.S. 





























HISTORY 


Of 

MEDICINE, 

FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE NINETEENTH 
CENTURY. 

By J. Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. 


CHAPTER I. 


Introduction—Division of the History of Medicine into three 
great Chronological Periods—History of Medicine previ¬ 
ously to its Introduction into Greece—Origin of Medicine 
—State of Medicine among the Egyptians—Among the 
Assyrians—Among the Jews—Introduction of Medicine 
into Greece—Chiron—^Esculapius—Machaon—Podalirius— 
The Asclepiadae—Records in the Temples of ^Esculapius— 
Ancient Inscriptions—Pythagoras—Democritus—Heraclitus 
—Acron—Herodicus—Gymnastic Medicine. 

Although the primary object of this treatise is to 
present a view of the history and progress of practical 
medicine, yet it will be impossible to avoid entering 
occasionally into the consideration of the various 
theories and speculations which have so generally pre¬ 
vailed in the science. Medical theory and practice 
have been so intimately blended together, that it would 
be useless to attempt to separate them. The terms 
which are employed in works of the most practical 
nature are, for the most part, derived from the theory 
which was current at the time of their publication; and 
even the narrative of facts, and the direct details of ex¬ 
perience, are, with a few exceptions, deeply tinged with 
the prevailing doctrines of the day, or with the indi- 



202 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


vidual speculations of the writer. Those who are 
versed in medical science, and who are acquainted with 
the relation which it bears to the other physical sci¬ 
ences, with the mode in which it is acquired, and the 
nature of the evidence on which it rests, will easily 
perceive that, in this department, it is peculiarly diffi¬ 
cult to separate facts from hypothesis. It may, how¬ 
ever, be asserted, that until this be accomplished, medi¬ 
cine can never be placed upon the basis of induction, 
and that this alone can give it that stability which may 
entitle it to be regarded as a correct science. In its 
present condition, it will be impossible to do more than 
to approximate to so desirable a state; but it will be 
a special object of attention in the following pages to 
endeavour to point out the limits between practice and 
theory, between facts and the opinions that have been 
deduced from them. 

When we take an extended view of the progress of 
medicine, tracing it from its scanty sources, in the 
most remote periods of society, and observe its course, 
as gradually augmented by the stores of Grecian and 
Roman learning, obscured by the darkness of the 
middle ages, and again bursting forth in the copious 
and almost overwhelming streams of modern literature, 
we are naturally led to separate the narrative into three 
divisions, corresponding to the three great chronologi¬ 
cal periods. The first of these will comprehend the 
history of practical medicine, from the earliest records 
which we possess to the decline of Roman literature; 
the second will contain an account of the state of the 
science through what are termed the dark ages until 
the revival of letters; the third will commence with the 
establishment of the inductive philosophy, and be con¬ 
tinued to the commencement of the nineteenth century. 

In tracing the history of this science from its earliest 
records, it will not be necessary to devote much time to 
a subject which was formerly discussed with great 
learning and acuteness, viz. the origin of medicine. It 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


203 


may be sufficient to remark, that in proportion to the 
progress of civilization or refinement, attempts would 
be made to remove or alleviate the diseases, and to re¬ 
pair the injuries to which the body is constantly inci¬ 
dent. Subject as it is at all times to the influence of 
various noxious agents, and to a constant derangement 
of its functions, to painful affections of various kinds, 
and to the loss or depravation of its powers or actions, 
we must conceive that mankind would be anxious to 
remove or relieve these evils. The means that would 
be employed must have been, in the first instance, ex¬ 
tremely imperfect, and frequently ill-directed. They 
may have been suggested by the effects of certain kinds 
of food, or by the operation of certain external agents 
on the body: some analogies may have been derived 
from the spontaneous actions of the system, by observ¬ 
ing the natural efforts of the constitution to remove cer¬ 
tain causes of disease, or to relieve the patient when 
suffering from their effects. Thus, in the earliest 
periods of society, mankind must have been aware of 
the relief which was obtained in the derangements of 
the alimentary canal by an evacuation of its contents, 
and would probably have discovered, incidentally, that 
certain vegetable substances promoted this operation. 
In the external injuries to which the body is subject, 
more especially in a rude state of society, means would 
early be had recourse to for procuring present ease 
from pain, or for removing the obvious danger to life 
which would so frequently follow from various causes. 
It would soon be found that the pain was diminished 
by excluding the wounded part from the air, or from 
other extraneous substances; that by certain modes of 
pressure, the flow of blood might be restricted; and that 
in some cases an increased and in others a diminished 
temperature gave immediate ease to the patient, and 
tended to promote the ultimate cure. A rude species 
of medical and surgical practice of this description has 
been in all cases found to exist in newly-discovered 
countries, even when in the most barbarous state; while 


204 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

it has been observed, generally, that the improvement 
in the healing art has been nearly in proportion to the 
advancement of the other arts of life, and to the gradual 
progress of knowledge on all subjects intimately con¬ 
nected with our existence or welfare. 

The historical records which we possess respecting 
the progress of practical medicine are scanty and un¬ 
certain ; but so far as they extend, they coincide with 
the view of the subject taken above. The writers who 
have investigated this point with the greatest learning 
and assiduity, inform us that Egypt was the country in 
which the art of medicine, as well as the other arts of 
civilized life, was first cultivated with any degree of 
success, and that it had advanced so far as to have be¬ 
come a distinct profession. We are not, however, in¬ 
formed in what degree or to what extent that dis¬ 
tinct appropriation was carried; whether medicine was 
made the exclusive business of certain individuals, who 
were regularly instructed for that purpose; whether it 
was attached to certain public functionaries, especially 
to the priests; or whether persons in different situa¬ 
tions applied themselves to the practice of medicine 
from a real or supposed superiority in their skill and in 
their knowledge of the treatment of diseases. The 
probability, however, is, that the priests of the Egyp¬ 
tians were at the same time their physicians. This ap¬ 
pears to have been the case among the Jews and the 
Greeks, who are supposed to have borrowed from the 
Egyptians many of their institutions; and indeed it 
seems to be the natural progress of society in its earlier 
period, when the priests were generally the depositaries 
of knowledge of all kinds, and when they confined it 
as much as possible to their own use, for the purpose of 
maintaining their influence over the rest of the com¬ 
munity. 

From some remarks which are made incidentally in 
the writings of the ancients, respecting the medicine of 
the Egyptian priests, it would appear that it consisted 
in a great measure of the employment of magical in- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


205 


cantations, and, so far therefore as it effected the cure 
of disease, must have operated through the medium of 
the imagination. This has been in all cases the first 
step in the art of medicine, if it may be so called, and 
its efficacy must have been in exact proportion to the 
ignorance and superstition of the people on whom it 
was exercised.* * 

A circumstance respecting the practice of medicine in 
Egypt is mentioned by Herodotus as existing when he 
visited that country, and which it may be presumed 
was transmitted from a much earlier period, that cer¬ 
tain individuals treated certain diseases only.* This 
division into separate branches might, at first view, seem 
to indicate a degree of manual dexterity and of minute 
observation in certain departments. But, independent 
of any other consideration, we may rest assured that 
the science must have remained in a state of complete 
degradation, when we bear in mind that it was the 
custom in Egypt, as it is in the present day among 
many of the nations of the East, to transmit the same 
occupations from father to son, through a number of 
successive generations. This practice, although it may 
be favourable to the perfection of an art, or even of a 
science, in some of its minute details, must furnish an 
almost insurmountable obstacle to its general improve¬ 
ment, or to the development of the powers and faculties 
of the human mind. 

Although we are in the habit of considering Egypt 
as the parent of the arts and sciences, the empire of 
Assyria has been supposed, by many learned men, to 
possess a greater claim to this distinction. Perhaps the 
priority of invention may be justly awarded to the 
Assyrians, but the memorials which they have left be¬ 
hind them are so scanty, that the degree of excellence 
to which they have arrived is almost entirely conject¬ 
ural. The priests of this nation, as in all other cases, 
appear to have been the depositaries of all the learning 

* he Clerc, Hist, de la Medecine, par. i. liv. i. chap. 12. 

* Euterpe, §. 84. 



206 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


of the times, and of that of medicine among the rest. 
We have reason to suppose that their practice consisted 
of little more than the dexterous application of magical 
arts, and such other means as tended to impress the 
minds of the people with a sense of their power over the 
operations of nature, while any actual information 
which they possessed was carefully concealed under the 
guise of mystery and superstition.f 

In the writings of Moses there are various allusions 
to the practice of medicine among the Jews, and more 
especially with regard to the treatment of leprosy. The 
priests appear in this, as in other cases, to have been the 
practitioners; the treatment consisted principally in 
certain regulations for the purpose of promoting clean¬ 
liness and preventing contagion, together with various 
ceremonies, which, so far as they could affect the 
patient, must have acted entirely on the imagination.^ 
So little is known respecting the state of the arts and 
sciences in the other countries of the East, at these re¬ 
mote periods, that it is scarcely necessary to allude to 
them in this place. We shall only remark, that the im¬ 
perfect and scanty notices which we possess on this 
subject would lead us to conclude, that the practice of 
medicine was even in a less advanced state than among 
the Egyptians, its progress being regulated by the 
greater or less degree of refinement or civilization of 
the respective countries, but in no case having advanced 
beyond the state of implicit credulity and gross super¬ 
stition^ 


t Herodotus, Clio, passim. Enfield’s History of Phil. v. i. p. 25 
et seq. 

t Leviticus, chap, xiii.-xv. Michaelis, on the Laws of Moses, chap. 
4, art. 210-11. 

§ For further information respecting the state of medicine among 
the Egyptians and the other nations of antiquity, previously to the 
Greeks and Romans, the reader is referred to the following works. 
Herodotus, Euterpe et Clio, passim. Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. sect. 25, 
82. Plinius, lib. vii. cap. 56, lib. xxix. cap. 1. Plutarchus, De Iside et 
Osiride. Josephus, Antiq. Jud. lib. viii. cap. 2. §. 5. Clemens Alex • 
andrinus, a Potter, Stromat. lib. vi. p. 758. Conring, Introd. Art. Med. 
cap. 3. §. 2. et De Hermet. Med. passim. Barcliusen, Diss. no. 1 et 7. 
Gruner, Analecta, Dis. 1. De Aigyptiorum Veterum Anatome. Schulz, 
Hist. Med. p. 1. §. 1. Le Clerc, par. 1, liv. i. chap., 1-8. Sprengel, 
Hist, de la Med. par. Jourdan, §. 2. chap. 1-3. Enfolds Hist, of Phil, 
v. i. p. 86, 7 et albi. Paulv, on the Egyptians and Chinese, part 1, §. 2. 
Bryant’s Analysis, v. 2, p. 324 et seq. et in multis aliis locis. Cabanis, 
Revol. de la Med. chap. 2, §. 1. Ackermann, Instit. Hist. Med. p. 1, 
chap. 1, 2. Lauth, Hist, de l’Anatomie, liv. i. Blumenbacli, Introd. in 
Historian! Medicinae Litter. §. 1-3. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


207 


After having given an account of the state of medi¬ 
cine among the ancient Egyptians and other contempo¬ 
rary nations, as far as can be gleaned from the scanty 
records that remain on this subject, we must follow it 
into Greece, and trace its progress from the period of its 
first introduction in the remote and semi-fabulous ages 
of their demigods and heroes, until it acquired the rank 
of science under the genius of Hippocrates. It is gen¬ 
erally admitted, that although Greece cultivated the arts 
and sciences with so much success, yet, in the first in¬ 
stance, she borrowed them from the neighbouring na¬ 
tions ; principally, as it would appear, from Egypt, and 
in some cases from Phoenicia. || To certain individuals 
who migrated from these countries, the Greeks them¬ 
selves were in the habit of referring the introduction of 
many of the most useful inventions; and during a con¬ 
siderable space of time all those who were desirous of 
acquiring a larger share of knowledge, either theoreti¬ 
cal or practical, than was possessed by their countrymen, 
visited Egypt, as the great storehouse of science and 
learning. It is from this cause that we find so much 
analogy between the divinites that were worshipped in 
the two countries, as inventors or patrons of the vari¬ 
ous arts and sciences. For although they acquired new 
names on their being transferred into Europe, yet their 
attributes, and even their forms, clearly demonstrate 
their origin. This is particularly the case with respect 
to medicine, so that in the Orus and Thouth of the 
Egyptians we may recognize the prototypes of the 
Apollo and Hermes of the Greeks.* * 

It is not until comparatively at a late period, ap¬ 
proaching to that of the Trojan war, that we find the 
names of actual personages who practised medicine in 
Greece: and of these, it is probable that some were 
natives of either Africa or Asia, who brought with them 
the information which they had acquired in their re¬ 
spective countries. Of those whose history is better 

II Vide Bryant, ubi supra, et v. ii. p. 426 et seq. et alibi. # 

* Haller, Bibl. Med. pract. lib. x. §. 7. 8 . Hundertmark, in Acker- 
mann, Opuscula, Exerc. no. 1. 



2oS 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


known, and who were acknowledged to be of Grecian 
origin, it was the general custom to travel into Egypt 
for the purpose of obtaining a knowledge of their art, 
and with this view they submitted to a system of rigid 
discipline, and to a variety of irksome and burdensome 
ceremonies; and after all this laborious process, so far 
as the science of medicine is concerned, the result 
seems to have been little more than the knowledge of 
magic and incantations, with some rude notions re¬ 
specting the application of external remedies for the 
cure of wounds and of cutaneous diseases, with a very 
imperfect idea of the anatomy of the human body, and 
a very inadequate conception of its functions.f 
The first native of Greece who is more particularly 
singled out, as having introduced the art of medicine 
to his countrymen, is the centaur Chiron. There is 
much mystery attached to his character and to every 
thing connected with him, but what we may consider 
as the most probable conclusion is, that he was a prince 
of Thessaly, who lived about the thirteenth century 
before the Christian era; that he was distinguished 
above his contemporaries for his knowledge of the arts 
of life; and that, after the manner of his countrymen, 
he was frequently seen on horseback, so as to give rise 
to the fabulous account of his compound form. He is 
particularly celebrated for his skill in medicine and in 
music; a combination, it may be remarked, that was 
said to have existed in many other individuals. We 
are not informed by what means he obtained his 
superior knowledge in medicine; but there are various 
circumstances which lead us to conclude that it was at 
that time regarded rather as a part of the education of 
all men of rank, than as attached to a particular pro¬ 
fession. We accordingly find that he instructed the 
Argonauts in medicine, and the heroes who were 
engaged in the siege of Troy; and that all the kings 

f Herodotus, Euterpe, passim. Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. passim. 
Josephus, Antiq. Jud. lib. viii. cap. 2. §. 5. Odyss. xix. 656 et seq. 
ASneis, vii. 753 et seq. 



OF MEDICAL, HISTORY 


209 


and warriors of that period were more or less 
acquainted with the treatment of wounds, and even 
with the practices which were adopted for the cure of 
internal diseases.^ 

But although Chiron has the reputation of having 
introduced the art of medicine into Greece, it is to his 
pupil ^Esculapius that, by the common consent of 
antiquity, is ascribed the merit of having first devoted 
himself to the cultivation of medicine as a science, and 
of having made it a distinct object of pursuit. The 
improvements which he made in the art were so con¬ 
siderable as to have induced his countrymen after his 
death to pay him divine honours, to designate him as the 
god of physic, to erect temples to him in various parts 
of Greece,§ and to derive his origin from Apollo him¬ 
self. His history, when divested of all the fabulous 
appendages that were attached to it by his contem¬ 
poraries, appears to be, that he was a native of Epi- 
daurus, that he was exposed in his infancy, probably in 
consequence of his illegitimate birth, that he was acci¬ 
dentally discovered by a shepherd, and placed under 
the care of Chiron. His death was said to have been 
caused by the jealousy of Pluto, in consequence of the 
number of individuals whom he rescued from the 
grave; from which tale we may at least conclude that 
his reputation, as a successful practitioner, must have 
been much higher than that of any of his contempora¬ 
ries. 11 

According to the custom of that age, he transmitted 
his profession to his sons Machaon and Podalirius, who 
accompanied the Greeks in the Trojan expedition, and 
are celebrated in various passages of the Iliad for their 

tllias, xi. 636 et seq. Sprengel, t. i. p. 112, 3. Ackertnann, par. 
1, cap. 3, §. 25-40. 

§ Pausanias, lib. i. cap. 21; li. 10; u. 13; »«• 22; iv. 31; vu. 21; 
vii. 23; vii. 27; viii. 25. Strabo, lib. viii. p. 592; ix. 668; xiii. 899; xvi. 
1097, a Casaubon. Amst. 1707- Le Clerc, par. 1, liv. i. ch. 20. 

|| Diodorus Siculus, lib. iv. §. 71. Hyginus, fab. 49 et alibi. Le 
Clerc, par. i. liv. i. ch. 11-16. Ortelius, Capita Deor. lib. ii. in Gronovii 
Thes. Graec. t. vii. p. 278 et seq. Montfaucon, Antiq. v. 1. book ii. ch. 
i, 2. Sprengel, t. i. p. 119 et seq. Ackermann, par. 1, cap. 3, §. 41-59; 
and especially the second dissertation in his Opuscula, by Giinsius and 
Richter. 



210 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


medical skill.* From the incidental mention that is 
made by Homer and the early Greek writers of the 
nature of the remedies that were employed by these 
individuals or their contemporaries, it will appear that 
their practice was principally surgical, and nearly con¬ 
fined to the treatment of wounds, and that, with respect 
to internal diseases, these were for the most .part con¬ 
ceived to be the immediate infliction of the Deity, and 
were therefore abandoned as incurable, or at least were 
to be obviated only by charms and incantations, and 
that the arts of magic formed no inconsiderable part 
even of their surgical practice.f 

The practice of medicine remained for a considerable 
time hereditary in the family of yEsculapius, and in a 
great measure confined to it. His descendants obtained 
the name of Asclepiadse; they were the priests of his 
temples, and presided over and directed the rites and 
ceremonies.^ These temples, indeed, became a species 
of hospitals to which patients resorted from all quar¬ 
ters for the relief of the diseases with which they were 
affected. Under the direction of the priests of these 
'emples they underwent a variety of ceremonies, the 
immediate effect of which must have been principally 
jpon the imagination. Some, however, of the prac¬ 
tices which were enjoined were of a dietetic nature, 
and were directly conducive to temperance and cleanli¬ 
ness; such as frequent ablution, and the abstaining 
from certain kinds of food. To these, if we add that 
the temples were generally erected in healthy situa¬ 
tions, that the patients enjoyed rest and leisure, and 
that the mind was interested by a succession of new 
and pleasing impressions, we may suppose that they 
would be placed under circumstances not a little 
resembling those which are found so conducive to 
health by the invalids who frequent the medicinal 

* Le Clerc, par. i, liv. i. ch. 17. Sprengel, t. i. p. 127 et seq. 
Goulin, Lncyc. Meth. Medecine, “Anciens Medecins.” This article may 
be advantageously consulted on the subject of the Greek and Roman 
physicians. 

t Ilias xi. 636 et seq. Odyss. xix. 456 et seq. 

% Sprengel, t. i. p. 168 et seq. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


211 


springs and other analogous establishments of modern 
times.§ 

Although the accounts that have been transmitted to 
us respecting ^Esculapius would lead us to conclude 
that he was a real personage, who actually possessed a 
greater degree of medical skill than any of his con¬ 
temporaries, yet his whole history is so involved in 
fable and mystery, that it is impossible to obtain any 
correct idea of the details of his practice. It has been 
observed above that it was probably, in a great meas¬ 
ure, surgical, and even confined almost exclusively to 
the cure of wounds or recent injuries. The treatment 
of these may be considered so far judicious as it was 
simple; it consisted in removing all extraneous bodies, 
in placing the parts as much as possible in their natural 
position, in fomentations and ablutions, and in the 
application of certain vegetables, which were supposed 
to be possessed of balsamic or styptic properties. Wine 
and other articles of a more stimulating nature were 
also used, while oleaginous substances were employed 
nearly with the same intention as in modern times, to 
defend the part from the air or other external agents, 
together with bandages and other means of mechanical 
support. We have no distinct evidence how far 
internal remedies were administered; for the most part 
they relied on magical arts and incantations, and 
although we have reason to believe that certain vege¬ 
table products were occasionally employed as internal 
remedies, we are scarcely able to discover what was 
the object of the practitioner, and we are frequently 
unable to ascertain what were the plants that were 
employed.|| 

But scanty and imperfect as is our knowledge of the 
state of medicine in the age of ^sculapius, after his 
death and that of his sons Machaon and Podalirius we 
have a long period, extending even to several centuries, 

§ Le Clerc, par. i. liv. ii. ch. 2-6. Schulz, par. i. §. 2, cap. 4. 
Sprengel, t. i. p. 153 et seq. Cabanis, p. 59, 60. 

|| Celsus, lib. i. praef. Plinius, lib. xxix. cap. 1. Le Clerc, par. i. 
liv. i. ch. 15. Schulz, p. i. §. 2, ch. 4. Sprengel, §. 2, ch. 4. 5. Cabanis, 
ch. 2, §. 1. 



212 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


during which we have still less information respecting 
the history and progress of the science. We have not 
a single improvement of any importance recorded as 
having taken place during this long interval, nor have 
we the names of any individuals transmitted to us who 
were of sufficient eminence to be distinguished above 
their contemporaries. We learn that the practice of 
medicine was entirely confined to the Asclepiadae, who 
were the guardians or superintendents of the temples 
that were erected in honor of ^Esculapius. It may be 
inferred from the very scanty materials which we pos¬ 
sess on the subject, consisting entirely of allusions or 
indirect accounts, scattered through the works of the 
older poets and historians, that they sedulously kept up 
the system of rites and ceremonies, which had been 
handed down to them from still more ancient pra'cti- J 
tioners, that they carefully preserved to themselves the 
sole management of the art over which they presided, 
and we cannot doubt made use of the influence which 
they acquired over the minds of their contemporaries 
for the purposes both of gain and of ambition.* But 
although we regard the general system of the priests of 
iEsculapius to be nothing more than a tissue of mys¬ 
tery and delusion, it is very probable that the ample 
opportunities which they possessed of witnessing the 
phenomena of disease in all its forms, might enable 
them to obtain much valuable information respecting 
the nature and tendency of the morbid actions of the 
body, and of the effects of certain agents upon them. 
Men possessed of superior talents and sagacity would 
naturally profit by these advantages, and we accord¬ 
ingly find that some of these temples acquired a high 
degree of celebrity, in consequence of the supposed 
skill of the priests that were attached to them. These 
opportunities of acquiring experience were much facil¬ 
itated by a practice which generally prevailed among 

* Lucian, in his “Philopseudes,” gives an account of various medical 
superstitions which prevailed at a later period, many of which were 
probably transmitted from the empirics of antiquity. See Tooke’s Trans, 
v. i. p. 87 et seq. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


213 


the patients, whenever they were cured of their dis¬ 
eases, of depositing in the temple a votive tablet, on 
which was inscribed a narrative of the case, including 
a statement of the symptoms of the disease, and the 
means adopted for its removal. The temples were 
thus converted, to a certain extent, into schools of med¬ 
icine, and as these records were religiously preserved, 
they became the repositories of much important infor¬ 
mation, which must have gradually led to an improve¬ 
ment in the art. Of the numerous temples that were 
dedicated to vEsculapius, there were three which 
acquired peculiar celebrity, those of Cos, of Gnidos, 
and of Rhodes; we are informed that Hippocrates 
made great use of these records, and it has even been 
supposed that one of the treatises which is generally 
ascribed to him, “Coacae Pr3enotiones, ,, was composed 
from the records which he procured from the temple 
of Cos. 

Some ancient inscriptions have been discovered by 
the researches of the learned antiquaries of the last 
century, which would appear to consist of memorials 
of this kind; and from these specimens we may form 
some idea of the nature of the information that would 
be conveyed by them. For the most part they state 
little more than the name of the disease, together with 
a very brief account of the means adopted for its relief, 
which in many cases depended entirely upon certain 
ceremonies, and in others upon the application of rem¬ 
edies, which, we may venture to assert, could have no 
physical operation.f Still, however, some experience 
of the nature and treatment of disease might have been 
conveyed by their means, and of this we may presume 
that an individual of a sagacious mind would have 
availed himself for the improvement of his art. 

Among the few circumstances that are transmitted 
to us respecting the principles and practice of the 
Asclepiadae, we are informed that the priests connected 

t Gruter, Corp. Inscrip, a Graevio, pi. 17 et alibi. Ackermann, 
Opuscula, Diss. 3, §. 3, by Hundertmark and Carpzov. 



214 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

with the two rival establishments of Cos and Gnidos 
devoted their attention, in some measure, to different 
objects; those of the former assumed more of a philo¬ 
sophical cast, attempting to unite reasoning with ex¬ 
perience, while the latter attached themselves solely to 
the observation and collection of mere matters of fact. 
Hence it would appear that a foundation was thus 
early laid for the two great sects of the Dogmatists and 
the Empirics, which long divided the medical world, 
and the influence of which is, even at this day, not 
altogether destroyed. I may remark, however, that the 
philosophy of the school of Cos, if it may be so called, 
was founded upon such totally incorrect principles, and 
upon so fallacious a basis, that little immediate benefit 
was derived from it, and that it was only useful so far 
as it might lead them to exercise their intellectual pow¬ 
ers, and enable them to reason more correctly on med¬ 
ical subjects. By the mode in which Hippocrates 
speaks of certain practices, such as bleeding and the 
administration of emetics, purgatives, and other analo¬ 
gous medicinal agents, we may infer that they were in 
common use among his contemporaries, and probably 
had been so for a long time before him. We may in 
some instances obtain a knowledge of the vegetable 
substances that were employed in these early ages, as 
well as of the individuals who introduced them into 
practice by the names which were afterward imposed 
upon them by the ancients. It must indeed be obvious 
that the indication derived from these names is far 
from being decisive, as applied to any particular case; 
but we derive a general inference from it as to the 
nature of the articles employed, while they serve to 
point out the persons who were supposed to have been 
the most eminent for their skill or their science. 

Some centuries had elapsed, during which the prac¬ 
tice of medicine continued altogether in the hands of 
the priesthood, and under their control had remained 
nearly stationary. It had been exercised, for the most 
part, for the purpose either of direct emolument, or 


OP MEDICAL HISTORY 


215 

for the still more selfish purpose of maintaining their 
influence over the minds of the people, when it began 
to be cultivated by a different description of persons, 
much more likely to produce a spirit of improvement, 
and from whom in reality it derived its first impulse. 
It was during the sixth century before the Christian 
era that the genuine principles of philosophy first made 
their appearance in Greece; and among the other topics 
which then became the subject of investigation, the 
powers and functions of the human body were 
examined with considerable attention. This led to an 
inquiry into the nature and cause of diseases, and to 
the means of their removal; and although a long period 
elapsed before much actual advance was made in the 
knowledge of pathology or of the practice of medicine, 
yet we observe the effect of a more correct mode of 
reasoning, and may perceive that the strongholds of 
mystery and superstition, although not destroyed, were 
at least in some degree weakened.* 

The celebrated name of Pythagoras may be men¬ 
tioned as the first of this class respecting whom we 
have any accurate information, and even his history is 
enveloped in much obscurity. We may, however, con¬ 
clude with certainty that he devoted the greatest por¬ 
tion of a long life to the pursuit of natural knowledge; 
that he made many considerable advances in various 
departments of science, and among others in the knowl¬ 
edge of the structure and actions of the human frame. 
It has been supposed that he dissected the bodies of 
animals, and hence acquired a certain acquaintance 
with anatomy; and that he publicly taught what he 
knew on this subject to a large assembly of students, 
who came from all the civilized parts of Greece and 
Italy to Crotona, where he established his school. We 
are informed that, for the purpose of acquiring knowl¬ 
edge, he travelled into those countries which, pre¬ 
viously to his time, were regarded as the depositories 
of knowledge, particularly Egypt, where he is said to 


Sprengel, §. 3 , ch. 1 . 



2 l6 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


have passed no less than twenty-two years, and prob¬ 
ably also Chaldea and some parts of Eastern Asia. 
From what has been stated above, we may form some 
conception of the nature of the knowledge that he 
would obtain from these sources, and we may conclude 
that he must have been possessed of a very superior 
mind to have been capable of extricating himself from 
the trammels of superstition and bigotry, in which 
every thing connected with those countries was in- 
volved.f 

We are scarcely able to determine in what degree he 
directly improved the practice of medicine; it is prob¬ 
able, however, that as he did not make it his profession, 
but studied it only in connection with the other 
branches of natural philosophy, the actual additions 
which he made to it were not considerable.^ This we 
may also conclude to have been the case with many of 
his pupils, who were among the most justly celebrated 
philosophers of that and the succeeding age. They 
may all of them be regarded as belonging to the school 
of Phythagoras, inasmuch as they cultivated natural 
knowledge by means of observation, and even occasion¬ 
ally of a rude kind of experiment; and although none 
of them were exclusively devoted to the study of medi¬ 
cine, yet they gradually and indirectly contributed to its 
advancement, so as to prepare the way for one of those 
great and commanding geniuses who occasionally make 
their appearance, and by their intellectual ascendancy 
produce such important revolutions in the world of 
science: it is unnecessary to state that I here allude to 
Hippocrates. 

During the interval from Phythagoras to Hippoc¬ 
rates there are few names that require any particular 
notice as improvers of medicine. Democritus* * and 

t Diogenes Laertius, lib. viii. cap. 1-50. Cicero, de Fin. v. 29. 
Valer. Maximus, viii. 7. JElianus, Hist. Var. iv. 17. Clemens Alex- 
andrinus, Stromat. lib. i. p. 354-7. Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. lib. ii. cap. 12. 
Enfield, vol. i. p. 4 22 et seq. Ackermann, Instit. Per. 2, cap. 4, 5; 
Opuscula, diss. 4, a Kuhn. 

t Sprengel, t. i. p. 337 et seq. 

* he Clerc, p. 96-101. Enfield, vol. i. p. 4 22 et seq. Barchusen, 
diss. No. 1. Sprengel, t. i. p. 261-6. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


217 


Heraclitus! were among the most illustrious followers 
of Pythagoras, but they became famous rather from the 
ingenuity with which they supported their peculiar 
hypotheses than from the additions which they made 
to actual knowledge. They applied respectively their 
favourite doctrines of atoms and elements to explain 
the phenomena of disease, and even the operation of 
remedies; but, it is unnecessary to say, with little real 
advantage. The former of these philosophers, how¬ 
ever, deserved honourable mention from the attention 
which he paid to the study of comparative anatomy; 
and it has been conjectured that he so far rose superior 
to the prejudices of his age as to venture upon the dis¬ 
section of the human subject. 

The name of Acron is mentioned by Pliny! as among 
the first who attempted, upon any general principles, 
to apply philosophical reasoning to the science of medi¬ 
cine; but we have scarcely any knowledge of his his¬ 
tory or character, nor have we any memorials left of 
the principles which he adopted.§ We may also select 
the name of Herodicus as having been considered the 
inventor of what was styled gymnastic medicine, || 
which was regarded by the Greeks as a very important 
branch of the art. Schools for the practice of the 
gymnastic exercises were established in various parts 
of Greece, and were placed under the direction and 
superintendence of persons especially trained for the 
purpose, who took charge of the health of their pupils, 
and who appear to have undertaken the treatment both 
of the accidents which occasionally occurred in their 
establishments, and also, when necessary, of internal 
diseases. These gymnasiarchs, as they were styled, 
must in this way have acquired a certain degree of 
information respecting the nature of disease, and seem 

t Le Clerc, p. 95, 96. Sprengel, t. i. p. 266-9. Enfield, vol. i. p. 
436 et seq. 

t Lib. xxix. cap. 1. 

§ Le Clerc, par. i. liv. ii. ch. 7. 

II Le Clerc, par. i. liv. ii. ch. 8. Mercurtahs, De Arte Gymnastica. 
Schulz, p. 192 et seq. Barbier, Diet. Scien. Med. art. “Gymnastique.” 
Ackermann, per. 2, cap. 6. 



2 l 8 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


to have been considered as among the most skilful 
practitioners of the age in which they lived, 


CHAPTER II. 

An Account of the Opinions and Practice of Hippocrates and 
his Contemporaries—Remarks on the History and Educa¬ 
tion of Hippocrates—High Estimation in which he was 
held—Remarks on his Character and Acquirements—On 
his Works—Account of his Principles and Doctrines, his 
Physiology, Pathology, Anatomy, and Practice. 

We now enter upon the history of an individual of 
very distinguished character and acquirements, who 
was destined to effect a complete revolution in his pro¬ 
fession, and to introduce a system which may be con¬ 
sidered as having laid a foundation for all its future 
improvements. The contemporaries and immediate 
successors of Hippocrates were so sensible of his merit, 
that he acquired from them the title, which he has since 
retained, of Father of Medicine; and it may be con¬ 
fidently affirmed that the science is more indebted to 
his genius and ability than to that of any single individ¬ 
ual. It is a little remarkable that, notwithstanding the 
great celebrity which he attained, we have no very cor¬ 
rect knowledge of his history, of the mode of his edu¬ 
cation, or of the means by which he acquired his won¬ 
derful pre-eminence. All that we are able to learn on 
these points with any degree of certainty is, that he 
was brought up among the Asclepiadse, who were 
attached to the temple of Cos; that he studied medicine 
under Herodicus, and that he embraced the philosophi¬ 
cal hypothesis of Heraclitus: he is also reputed to have 
been a lineal descendant, in the eighteenth degree, from 

H Plato, De Repub. passim, et De Leg. lib. vii. Schulz has 
judiciously summed up, in a series of general propositions, the history 
and progress of medicine up to the period at which we are now arrived, 
p. 201, 2. 




OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


2ig 


^Esculapius, and may therefore be supposed to have 
been devoted to the profession from an early period of 
life, and must have had access to all the records which 
were accumulated in the establishment to which he 
belonged. These circumstances may have had the 
effect of originally directing his mind to the pursuits 
in which he afterward became so eminent; but we must 
suppose that he possessed from nature a genius sin¬ 
gularly adapted to the advancement of medical science, 
by which he was enabled so far to surpass all those 
who were placed in situations equally advantageous. 
We are informed that he spent a considerable portion 
of his life in travelling through foreign countries, 
partly for the purpose of obtaining information, and 
partly from the circumstance of his assistance being 
required to undertake the cure of persons of rank, to 
arrest the progress of epidemics, or to check the rav¬ 
ages of endemic diseases. The works that he left 
behind him are very numerous, and, considering their 
antiquity, they may be regarded as in a tolerably per¬ 
fect state. 

Unfortunately, however, to those which appear to 
have a just claim to be considered as his genuine pro¬ 
ductions there are appended a number of others, which 
it may be concluded are spurious, either written by his 
pupils or successors, or fraudulently attached to his 
name in consequence of his great celebrity. Many 
eminent critics have exercised their ingenuity in 
endeavouring to separate the genuine from the spurious 
writings of Hippocrates; and in such estimation was 
he held, that for many ages a main object with all writ¬ 
ers on medical topics was to comment on the works of 
Hippocrates, to elucidate his principles by subsequent 
observation, or to support their respective doctrines 
by his authority. He is mentioned with great respect 
by Plato, Celsus, and Pliny, and by others among the 
ancients: Galen speaks of him with a degree of almost 
enthusiastic admiration ; and at the revival of letters the 
most learned men of the times devoted themselves to 


220 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


the elucidation of his works by glossaries, commen¬ 
taries, and criticisms of all descriptions. In Italy, 
Germany, and France, where learning first began to 
revive, and where the earliest universities were estab¬ 
lished, we have, among other illustrious names, those 
of Alpinus, Cornarius, Hollerius, Ballonius, Mer- 
curialis, Fernel, Heurmus, Sennert, Foesius, Riolan, 
and Duret,* who, however they might differ in their 
opinions and practice, all coincided in regarding Hip¬ 
pocrates with equal respect, and considered him as hav¬ 
ing first placed the study of medicine on its correct 
basis.f 

We are hence naturally led to inquire what were the 
circumstances, in the intellectual or literary character 
of Hippocrates, which produced this powerful impres¬ 
sion, and perhaps we may assign the following as 
among the most influential. He appears to have had 
the sagacity to discover the great and fundamental 
truth, that in medicine, probably even more than in any 
other science, the basis of all our knowledge is the 
accurate observation of actual phenomena, and that the 
correct generalization of these phenomena should be 
the sole foundation of all our reasoning. Every page 
of Hippocrates proves that he was not without his 
speculations and hypotheses, but at the same time we 
perceive that, for the most part, they were kept in sub¬ 
jection to the result of observation, and that, when they 
appeared to be in opposition to each other, he had the 
wisdom to prefer the latter. Hence his descriptions 
of particular diseases, after all the revolutions of cus¬ 
toms and habits, both moral and physical, are still 
found to be correct representations of nature, while his 
indications of cure, and the treatment derived from 
them, are generally rational and practicable. When 

* In designating the names of authors who flourished after the 
revival of letters, it is somewhat difficult to determine whether we 
ought to use their actual or their latinized names: I have adopted 
the former where it could be done without ambiguity or the appearance 
of afFectation. 

t Conring, Intr. cap. 3. §. 8. et alibi. Haller, Bibl. Med. Prac. lib. 
vi.; it is entitled “Schola Hippocratica,” and is carried down to the 
beginning of the seventeenth century. 



OR MEDICAL HISTORY 


221 


we reflect that at this period anatomy was scarcely 
practiced,^ that physiology was almost unknown, that 
the materia medica was nearly confined to vegetable 
substances, and of these to such as were indigenous 
to Greece and the neighbouring countries, our admira¬ 
tion of the skill and talents of Hippocrates will be still 
further increased, and we are induced to regard him 
as one of those rare geniuses, who so far outstrip their 
contemporaries as to form an era in the history of 
science. 

With respect to the particular improvements which 
he introduced into the practice of medicine, I may 
remark that one of the first importance was the narra¬ 
tion of individual cases of disease,—a plan which may 
perhaps have been suggested to him by the votive 
tablets deposited in the temple of ^Esculapius, but upon 
which he so far improved as to be entitled to the merit 
of an inventor. The second point on which I shall 
remark, was his method of endeavouring to remove par¬ 
ticular symptoms by carefully noticing what have been 
termed the juvantia and the ladentia, watching the 
effect of his applications, and proceeding, by a cautious 
analogy, from individual facts to more general con¬ 
clusions; and hence deducing his indications of cure 
from the operations of remedies, not from any precon¬ 
ceived or abstract principles, which were generally 
either fallacious or inapplicable. Hence his practice 
may be characterized as consisting in what has been 
termed a rational empiricism, where we first ascertain 
the fact, and afterward reason upon its consequences. 

In speaking of the writings of Hippocrates, it may 
be proper to remark, that the most complete edition of 
them, in all respects, is that of Foesius, in which every 
circumstance is attended to that can illustrate them or 
render them more easily intelligible. He has given a 
list of all the commentaries and criticisms that had been 
written upon them, which, at the time of his publica- 

t Gruner, Analecta, diss. 2. “Hippocrates, corpora humana inse- 
cuerit necne?” He discusses the question with much learning and 
candour, and decides in the negative. 



222 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


tion, in the year 1595, would of themselves have formed 
an extensive library. It appears from this list that no 
less than one hundred and thirty-seven authors had 
published on the subject of the aphorisms alone. It 
was remarked above that many of the writings which 
are commonly ascribed to Hippocrates, or at least are 
published in the collection of his works, are supposed 
not to have been his genuine productions; and hence it 
has been an object of interest with many eminent crit¬ 
ics to distinguish the one from the other. It will not 
be necessary for me to enter into these discussions in 
this place; I shall only remark, that the number of 
treatises which are admitted to be certainly genuine is 
very small, compared to the whole number popularly 
ascribed to him. Of those which are printed in the 
ordinary editions of his works, which amount to more 
than sixty, Mercurialis, Haller, Gruner, and other crit¬ 
ics, conceive that there are a few only which were 
actually written by Hippocrates, and Ackermann has 
even reduced the number of the genuine works to ten.* 
In ascertaining what were the real opinions and 
practices of Hippocrates, besides the difficulty of dis¬ 
criminating the genuine from the spurious productions, 
we have a further difficulty arising from the peculiarity 
of his style. This is admitted to be brief and abrupt, 
and to be full of ideas, compared with the number of 
words employed to convey them; so that it appeared 
somewhat obscure even to his contemporaries and 
immediate successors. Erotianus, who lived in the 
first century of the Christian era, thought it necessary 
to write a glossary for the express purpose of elucidat¬ 
ing his phraseology; and the immense number of com¬ 
mentaries which have appeared, and which continued 
to be published until the commencement of the 
eighteenth century, must be regarded, not only as a 

* Conring, cap. 3, §. 8. he Clerc, par. 1, liv. iii. ch. 30. Mercuri- 
ahs, Censura et Dispositio Operum Hippocratis.. Gruner, Analecta, No. 
2. Kuhn, Bib. Med. p. 167-171, for the editions of Hippocrates. Haller, 
Bibliotheca Med. Prac. lib. i. §. 17-21. Eloy, Diet. hist, in loco. Acher- 
mann, Inst. Hist. Med. par. 1, cap. 8, §. 102. Blumenbach,, Introd. §. 
34 * Goulin, Enc. Meth. Medecine, “Hippocrate,” p. 202*5. 



OP MEDICAL HISTORY 


223 


tribute to his extraordinary merit, but, in some meas¬ 
ure, as an indirect censure of his style. But after 
making all due allowance for these peculiarities, after 
rejecting all the doubtful works and obscure passages, 
and resting more upon the general scope and tendency 
of the treatises than on particular words and phrases, 
we have sufficient evidence left us of the nature of his 
principles, both as regards theory and practice. Although 
it is principally in the latter capacity that we are now 
to regard Hippocrates, yet it will be proper to make a 
few remarks upon his acquirements in the analogous 
departments of science. 

With respect to his philosophical tenets, it appears 
that the father of medicine must be classed generally 
among the Pythagoreans, and in the particular sect or 
school of Heraclitus. The leading doctrine of this 
philosopher was, that fire is the prime origin of all 
matter, and that by the collision and peculiar combina¬ 
tion of its particles, which are in perpetual motion, the 
four elements are produced.f From this doctrine Hip¬ 
pocrates derived his leading principles of pathology; 
it lies at the foundation of all his medical hypotheses, 
and is brought forward in various parts of his works. 
But although, like all his contemporaries, and indeed 
nearly all his successors up to the present day, he 
assumed certain theoretical principles; yet, as we 
remarked above, he had the extraordinary sagacity to 
perceive the necessity of detaching medicine from what 
was then styled philosophy. He professed to examine 
the phenomena of disease in the first instance, to ascer¬ 
tain what were the natural powers and properties of 
the animal frame, how far these were affected by 
external circumstances and by morbid causes, and 
hence to derive his curative indications and his mode of 
treatment. It is in the writings of Hippocrates that 
we observe the first traces of what is properly styled 
physiology, i. e. an account of the functions and powers 


t Enfield,, b. 2, c. 14, v. 1. p. 436 et seq. 



224 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


of the living body. Although some of his opinions 
were derived from the school of Pythagoras, and sav¬ 
our of its mysticism and obscurity, yet others appear to 
have been original, and founded upon a much more 
correct and philosophical view of the subject. We owe 
to him the invention of the hypothesis of a principle, 
to which he gives the appellation of nature 
which influences all parts of the corporal frame, super¬ 
intends and directs its motions, and which is possessed 
of a kind of intelligence, so as to promote all the actions 
which are beneficial, and repress those which have an 
injurious tendency. In addition to this general prin¬ 
ciple, he conceives of others of a subordinate nature, 
which he styles powers (duvap.et?') , which are more 
particularly concerned in the action of the various 
functions of the body. The body itself is supposed to 
consist of the four elements, combined in different 
proportions in different individuals, so as to produce 
an original difference in the constitution of the body, 
giving rise to the four temperaments. These influ¬ 
ence both the intellectual and the corporeal part of our 
frame, and lay a foundation for disease independent of 
circumstances, and cause these circumstances to operate 
in different modes and in different degrees in different 
individuals. 

One of the leading pathological doctrines of Hippo¬ 
crates was, that the fluids are the primary seat of dis¬ 
ease; a doctrine which, under the denomination of the 
Humoral Pathology, became the prevailing opinion of 
all sects and of all theorists, until the commencement of 
the eighteenth century. The combination of the four 
elements with the four states or qualities with which 
they were affected—of hot, cold, moist, and dry—gave 
rise to the four fluids or humours of the body—blood, 
phlegm, bile, and black bile,—which originally tended 
to produce the four temperaments, and which in their 
turn contributed to the excess or defect of each of the 
humours. 

Another of the most important doctrines of Hippo- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


225 


crates is that of crises, or the natural tendency of dis¬ 
eases to a cure at certain stated periods, depending 
upon a natural train of actions, which, when proceed¬ 
ing in their due course, terminate in the removal of the 
morbid action. These supposed crises were, for the 
most part, evacuations of various kinds, especially by 
the bowels or the skin; and hence the regulation of 
these evacuations led to his most important indications, 
and became a main part of his practice. There is no 
subject on which Hippocrates showed more sagacity 
and accurate observation than in watching the effect of 
external agents upon the system,—such as tempera¬ 
ture, the influence of the atmosphere, the effect of par¬ 
ticular situations, of the seasons, and other analogous 
circumstances. In most of these cases the causes were 
obscure, and he frequently erred in his attempts to 
explain them; but his observations were correct, and 
contributed materially to the success of his practice. 

The extent of knowledge which Hippocrates pos¬ 
sessed on the subject of anatomy has given rise to much 
learned discussion. While his admirers were unwill¬ 
ing to admit that he was deficient in any of the depart¬ 
ments of medical science, and attempted to prove that 
he had acquired a correct knowledge of the structure 
of the body, it has been contended, on the other hand, 
that on this point his information was very imperfect. 
This may be readily supposed to be the case from the 
abhorrence with which the dissection of the human 
subject was regarded at that period, and from the little 
attention which was paid even to comparative anat¬ 
omy. There are likewise other considerations of an 
especial nature, which lead us to conclude that he had 
little knowledge of the internal structure of the body, 
or of the relation of its different parts to each other. 
Notwithstanding, therefore, the claim which has been 
set up for Hippocrates, by some of his devoted advo¬ 
cates, to a knowledge of the circulation of the blood, 
and other claims equally extravagant and unfounded, 
we may conclude, with the learned and candid Le 
15 


226 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


Clerc, that the knowledge which Hippocrates pos¬ 
sessed of anatomy was little, if at all, superior to that 
of his contemporaries.* 

After these brief observations on the theoretical doc¬ 
trines of Hippocrates, and of the knowledge which he 
possessed in the various departments of medical science, 
we must conclude this chapter with a somewhat more 
minute account of his practice. Although he has pub¬ 
lished no regular treatise on practical medicine, nor laid 
down any specific rules on this subject, he has given 
us, in several parts of his works, a minute detail of his 
treatment of various diseases, so that we are enabled 
to ascertain, with considerable minuteness, the general 
principles on which he acted, as well as the mode in 
which he applied them. The great principle which 
directed all his indications was the supposed operation 
of “nature,” to which we have referred above, in super¬ 
intending and regulating all the actions of the system. 
The chief business of the physician is to watch these 
operations, to promote or suppress them according to 
circumstances, and perhaps, in some rare cases, to 
attempt to counteract them. The tendency of this 
mode of practice would be to produce extreme caution, 
or rather inertness, on the part of the practitioner, and 
we accordingly find that Hippocrates seldom attempted 
to cut short any morbid action, or to remove it by 
any decisive or vigorous treatment. Considering the 
state of knowledge on all subjects when he lived, it 
must be admitted that this plan of proceeding was 
much more salutary than the opposite extreme, and that 
it had likewise the good effect of enabling the practi¬ 
tioner to make himself better acquainted with the 
phenomena of disease, and, by observing the unaided 
efforts of nature, to form his indications with more 
correctness, and to determine to what object he ought 
more particularly to direct his attention. It has been 
remarked, that a man who is possessed of an acute and 

* Le Clerc, par. i, liv. iii. ch. 3. Schulz, per 1, sec. 3, cap. 2, §. 
1-8. Sprengel, t. i. p. 30 2 et seq. Gruner, Analecta, No. 2. Lauth, 
liv. iii. passim. 



OF MEDICAL history 


227 


penetrating genius, however strongly he may be 
attached to a favourite hypothesis, contrives to adapt it 
to the information which he acquires; and this was in 
some measure the case with Hippocrates. For, not¬ 
withstanding the grand principle of the all-sufficient 
and unerring superintendence of nature, we have 
another general principle brought into view, which 
appears altogether of an opposite tendency, viz. that a 
disease is to be cured by inducing a contrary state of 
the system, or a contrary action in the morbid part. 
Thus, repletion is to be relieved by evacuation, and the 
effect of excessive evacuation to be removed by induc¬ 
ing repletion; the excess or defect of any of the hum¬ 
ours or qualities is to be relieved by the employment 
of such means as may augment or diminish the con¬ 
trary humour or quality. Perhaps it may be said that, 
in these cases, the practitioner is in fact only anticipa¬ 
ting the operation of nature, or producing that change 
which would naturally ensue, were there not some 
unusual counteracting cause which prevented or re¬ 
pressed it. But it is of comparatively little conse¬ 
quence in what way he reconciled this apparent dis¬ 
cordance; we have every reason to feel assured that 
this mode of treatment is frequently correct, and 
Hippocrates evinces the superiority of his genius by 
not suffering his judgment to be warped, even by the 
influence of a favourite hypothesis. 

A third principle which very materially affected the 
practice of Hippocrates was the doctrine of critical 
evacuations, to which we have alluded above. As dis¬ 
eases were supposed to originate in the prevalence of 
some morbid humour, so when they are suffered to run 
their course without interruption, they are relieved by 
the discharge of the humour, and consequently the pro¬ 
motion of this discharge becomes an important indica¬ 
tion, which it is often easy to accomplish, and which 
proves very effectual. Hence an important part of his 
practice consisted in the employment of evacuations of 
various kinds, and especially of purgatives, of which 


228 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

he used a great variety, and administered them with 
great freedom. This, indeed, was the only part of his 
practice which can be considered as decidedly active, but 
even here we do not perceive that he transgressed the 
limits of prudence, while in the selection of the remedy 
and its adaptation to each particular case, he mani¬ 
fested considerable judgment and sagacity. With the 
same intention he prescribed diuretics and sudorifics: 
he drew blood both by the lancet and the scarificator; 
he applied the cupping-glasses; he administered injec¬ 
tions and inserted issues. He made very frequent use 
of external applications, such as ointments, plasters, 
liniments, etc., and was familiarly acquainted with the 
effects of external temperature. His materia medica 
was tolerably copious, and embraced many articles 
which still retain their place in our pharmacopoeias. 
They were almost exclusively of vegetable origin, for 
the preparations which depend on chymical processes, 
such as metallic salts and oxides, the strong acids, with 
the spirituous compounds, were then totally unknown. 

One important part of medical practice to which 
Hippocrates paid particular attention was the regula¬ 
tion of the diet; in this he displayed much sagacity and 
discernment, as well as on all points connected with 
the management of his patients, with regard both to the 
cure and prevention of disease. He appears to have 
been the first who noticed what has been called the 
epidemic constitution of the seasons, that inexplicable 
condition of the atmosphere, or of those influences to 
which the body is exposed, which appears to render it 
more or less obnoxious to certain morbid causes, and 
even to generate these causes at certain periods, with : 
out our being able to refer their production to any more 
general principle. 

The tendency of the practice of Hippocrates to allow 
the operations of the system to pursue their course 
without interruption, united with his natural sagacity, 
enabled him to acquire great skill in prognostics, so that 
there are no parts of his writings which exhibit more 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


229 


decisive marks of a superior understanding than those 
in which he treats on this topic. Upon a review of 
the character and writings of this celebrated individual, 
we conceive that we are warranted in the conclusion, 
that while there are few persons of any age or nation 
who attained to greater distinction among their con¬ 
temporaries, or whose memory has been more cher¬ 
ished by posterity, there was perhaps no one whose 
fame was more merited or established upon a firmer 
foundation.* 


CHAPTER III. 


History of Medicine from the time of Hippocrates until its 
Introduction into Rome—Establishment of the Dogmatic 
Sect—Plato—Aristotle—School of Alexandria—Erasistra- 
tus Herophilus—Division of Medicine into different De¬ 
partments—Into the Dogmatic and Empiric Sects—Their 
General Principles. 


We have not much to add respecting the state of 
medicine during the period which immediately suc¬ 
ceeded to the death of Hippocrates. The advance 
which he made in the science, and the improvement 
which he introduced into the practice, were so con¬ 
siderable, that no one appeared for some centuries who 
was able to proceed, at least in any considerable degree, 
beyond the point of perfection to which it had been 
brought by the great father of medicine. In conform¬ 
ity with the custom of the times, Hippocrates trans¬ 
mitted his profession to his sons Thessalus and Draco, 
and we are informed that it continued to descend in 


* Le Clerc, par. i. liv. iii. Conring, cap. 2, §. 11, et alibi. Schuls, 
per. 1, §. 3, cap. 1-4. Douglas, Bibliogr. Anat. p. 1, et seq. Barchusen, 
diss. No. 12. Haller, Bib. Med. lib. i. §. 17-21. Sprengel, §. 3, chap. 
3. Enfield, vol. 1, p. 442-4. Aikin’s Gen. Biog. in loco. Goulin, Enc. 
Meth. “Medecine,” in loco. Cabanis, ch. 2, §. 3. Ackermann, Inst. 
Hist. Med. p. 70-8. Eloy, Diet, in loco. Nouv. Diet. Hist, in loco. 
Renauldin, Biog. Univ. “Hippocrate.” 




230 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

the direct hereditary line for several successive genera¬ 
tions. Polybus, his son-in-law, is singled out as having 
fully maintained the credit of his illustrious relative; 
and it is even said that many of the writings usually 
ascribed to Hippocrates are in reality the production of 
Polybus.f 

The only other names which we meet with in the 
annals of medicine among the Asclepiadse, that are in 
any considerable degree distinguished, are Diodes of 
Carystus and Praxagoras of Cos. The former of these 
obtained a high reputation for his learning and prac¬ 
tical skill: he appears to have adopted for the most 
part the opinions and practice of Hippocrates.^ Of 
the latter, although he is enumerated among the suc¬ 
cessful improvers of the art, we have only very imper¬ 
fect and unsatisfactory accounts. We are indeed 
informed that he paid great attention to anatomy, that 
he particularly noticed the state of the pulse, and 
derived many of his indications from this source; but 
we have little except the general fact of the estimation 
in which his name was held by his contemporaries, 
which can enable us to form an estimate of his merit.* * 
The name of Chrysippus may be noticed in this place 
as one who appears to have been a kind of irregular 
practitioner, as we should style him, who did not 
belong to the family of the Asclepiadse, and was prin¬ 
cipally remarkable for the innovations which he intro¬ 
duced into practice.f But, like too many of those 
whose fame is principally founded on the novelty of 
their opinions, we do not find much to commend in 
them. We are told that he did not allow, in any case, 
of bleeding, and that he discountenanced the employ¬ 
ment of all active purgatives; and, in short, that he 

t Le Clerc, par. i. liv. iv. ch. i. 

t Le Clerc, par. i. liv. iv. ch. 5. Schulz, p. ii. cap. 1, §. 10-22. 
Sprengel, t. i. p. 366. 

* Le Clerc, par. i. liv. iv. ch. 6. Schulz, p. ii. cap. 1, §. 23-8. 
Sprengel, t. i. p. 372-4- 

t Pliny remarks of him, “Horum (referring to previous physicians) 
placita Chrysippus ingenti garrulitate mutavit. Nat. Hist. lib. xxix. 
cap. x. 



OR MEDICAL HISTORY 231 

rejected many of the most powerful and effective 
agents in the treatment of disease.^ 

Draco and Thessalus, in conjunction with their rela¬ 
tive Polybus, are generally regarded as the founders 
of what has been considered as the first medical sect 
or school which was established upon rational prin¬ 
ciples. It obtained the name of the Hippocratean, or 
more generally the Dogmatic school or sect, because 
it professed to set out with certain theoretical principles 
which were derived from the generalization of facts 
and observations, and to make these principles the 
basis of practice. 

Although we can have no hesitation in pronouncing 
this to be the correct and legitimate method of pursuing 
the study of medicine, yet it must be acknowledged at 
the same time that it is a method which, if not carefully 
watched and strictly guarded by prudence and sagacity, 
is exposed to the greatest danger of being corrupted 
by ignorance and presumption. Hence we may easily 
conceive that it would be liable to fall into the grossest 
errors, and to lie open to the most serious imputations, 
and that a fair plea would always be found for 
exclaiming against the introduction of what is termed 
theory into the practice of medicine. This abuse of the 
principles of the Dogmatists gave rise to the rival sect 
of the Empirics, who, perceiving the false reasoning of 
the former, and the injudicious practice consequent 
upon it, professed to be guided altogether by experi¬ 
ence, and to discard all theory. For many centuries, 
these two sects divided the medical world; and even 
at this day, after all the revolutions of opinion and the 
improvements of science, we may observe very distinct 
traces of their influence. It was not, however, until a 
considerably later period that the Empirics formed 
themselves into a distinct sect, and became the declared 
opposers of the Dogmatists.§ 


t Le Clerc, par. ii. liv. i. ch. 1. Schulz, p. i. §. 3, ch. 5, 
gel, t. i. p. 365. 

5 Sprengel, §. 4, ch, j. 



232 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

Besides the individuals who belonged to the family 
of the Asclepiadse, and who made medicine their par¬ 
ticular profession or pursuit, most of the philosophers 
of Greece bestowed a certain degree of attention upon 
this science; for it appears that among the ancients a 
knowledge of medicine was regarded as one of the 
branches of philosophy which was included in a course 
of general education. The only two, however, of the 
Grecian philosophers whom it will be necessary to 
mention on the present occasion are Plato and Aris¬ 
totle, who, although they did not compose any treatises 
on medicine, strictly so called, make frequent allusions 
to it in various parts of their writings. The former of 
these authors, in his dialogue styled Timseus and in 
his treatise De Republica, has entered into various 
physiological discussions respecting the functions of 
the body, and the supposed effect of their derangement 
in producing the morbid conditions of the system, and 
has offered various incidental observations on the prac¬ 
tice of his contemporaries. But it does not appear that 
either the theory or the practice of medicine received 
any improvement from this philosopher. He made 
little or no addition to the actual stock of our knowl- 
edege in any branch of natural science, while his 
peculiar genius rather led him to the formation of 
hypotheses and speculations derived from fanciful 
analogies, tinged with that air of mystery which per¬ 
vades most of his writings. || 

Both the original turn of mind and the pursuits of 
Aristotle were much better adapted to improve the 
science of medicine than those of Plato: he made very 
great advances in the knowledge of nature; he was 
peculiarly well situated for the acquisition of new 
information on all subjects connected with natural his¬ 
tory, and he diligently availed himself of his advan¬ 
tages. He was the first writer who published any 
regular treatises on comparative anatomy and physiol- 

II Le Clerc, par. i. liv. iv. ch. 3. Stanley’s Hist, of Phil, part v. 
ch. 22, p. 79 et alibi. Sprengel, t. i. p. 337 et seq. 



OF MEDICAIv HISTORY 


233 


ogy, and his works on these subjects may be still read 
with much interest after all the additions which have 
been made to them by the moderns.* But notwith¬ 
standing all these favourable circumstances, it may be 
questioned whether the influence of Aristotle has not 
been ultimately somewhat unfavorable to the progress 
of knowledge. With his valuable facts and observa¬ 
tions he mixed up a large portion of recondite and 
refined speculations, so that it is frequently not easy to 
separate the one from the other; and so great was the 
ascendancy which this genius acquired over the minds 
of men for many centuries after his death, that all his 
opinions, the most unfounded as well as the most 
philosophical, were indiscriminately received as estab¬ 
lished truths, which no one ventured to oppose or to 
controvert.f 

The next circumstance which we are called upon to 
notice in the history of medicine is the establishment 
of the school of Alexandria. This was effected by the 
munificence of the Ptolemies, who about three hundred 
years before the Christian era, laid the foundation of 
the celebrated Alexandrian library and of the school of 
philosophy which is graced by so many illustrious 
names. The science of medicine was cultivated in this 
school with peculiar assiduity, and we owe some very 
essential improvements to its professors. Among the 
most famous of these are Erasistratus and Herophilus. 
We have not much accurate information respecting the 
personal history of these two individuals, nor have any 
of their works been transmitted to us; but we have a 
detailed account of their opinions and practice given us 
by Galen, Coelius Aurelianus, and others, so as to 
enable us to form a tolerably correct estimate of their 
merits. They are particularly mentioned as being the 
first who dissected the human subject, for which pur¬ 
pose the bodies of criminals were allotted to them by 
the government; and it appears that they amply pro- 


* Douglas, Bibliogr. Anat. p. 9-11. .. 

t Le Clerc, par. i. liv. ii. ch. 4. Schulz, p. n. cap. 1, §• 2 ct seq. 
Stanley, part vi. passim. Sprengel, §. 4, cap. 2. 



234 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


fited by the advantage which was thus given them, so 
as very considerably to advance our knowledge of the 
structure of the body, especially by pointing out those 
circumstances in which the human subject differed 
from that of the animals who most nearly resembled it, 
and in correcting the errors on this point into which 
their predecessors had fallen. Nearly every part of the 
great system of which the body is composed profited 
by their labours: they ascertained with much more cor¬ 
rectness than had been previously done the structure 
of the heart and great vessels, and of the brain and 
nerves, and they even seem to have had some imper¬ 
fect knowledge of the absorbents. We are informed 
that Erasistratus was the pupil of Chrysippus, and that 
he imbibed from him his prejudice against bleeding 
and against the use of active remedies, trusting more 
to the operation of diet or the natural efforts of the 
system: hence we are to regard him as having 
improved the practice of medicine only indirectly by the 
addition which he made to our knowledge of anatomy.^ 
The anatomical fame of Herophilus is so intimately 
blended with that of Erasistratus that we are unable to 
assign to each his respective share of merit; but it 
would appear that the former was more correct and 
more skilful in the practical department. Of this we 
have one proof in the fact which is stated by Galen, 
that Herophilus was one of the first who paid very 
minute attention to the varieties of the pulse; and his 
name is handed down to us by the ancients as entitled 
to the highest respect, both from his character and his 
acquirements^ 

An important circumstance in the history of medi¬ 
cine, and more especially in that department to which 
our attention is particularly directed, occurred soon 
after the establishment of the Alexandrian school, viz. 

t Le Clerc, par. ii. liv. i. ch. 2-4. Schulz, p. ii. cap. 3, §. 35-66. 
Sprengel, t. i. p. 439 et seq. Lauth, p. 140, 1. 

§ Le Clerc, par. ii. liv. i. ch. 6. Schulz, p. ii. cap. 3, §. 2-34. 
Sprengel, t. i. p. 433 et seq. Lauth, p. 139, 140.—For an account of 
the Alexandrian school generally, see Sprengel, sect. 4, ch. 3; and 
Lauth, liv. iv. 



OF MEDICAL til STORY 


235 


the division into distinct professions, which were exer¬ 
cised by different individuals. Previous to this per¬ 
iod the practice of what is more especially styled medi¬ 
cine and of surgery was exercised by the same person; 
the iaTp 6 $ of the Greeks corresponding nearly to what 
we should now term the general practitioner. But 
about this time the separation into the departments of 
dietetics, pharmacy, and surgery commenced, and was 
gradually admitted into all succeeding schools or sects. 
The terms did not, however, possess precisely the same 
signification as in modern times. Dietetics compre¬ 
hended not the regulation of the diet alone, but every 
circumstance connected with the general health or man¬ 
agement of the patient, and correspond very nearly to 
the “medicus” or physician of modern times. The 
second included not merely the department of the 
apothecary or the compounder of drugs, but the per¬ 
formance of many of the operations of surgery; while 
to the third was allotted the treatment of surgical dis¬ 
eases, many of the operations, however, being com¬ 
mitted to the professors of the second branch. That 
this separation eventually tended to the improvement 
of the respective branches of the profession will 
scarcely be doubted, although it must at the same time 
be acknowledged that many of the distinctions which 
were introduced were frivolous and invidious, and are 
now rapidly yielding to the superior intelligence of 
modern times.* 

It was about this period, i. e. shortly after the estab¬ 
lishment of the Alexandrian school, that the great 
schism, to which we have so often alluded, took place. 
It was occasioned by the formation of the rival sects 
of the Dogmatists and the Empirics. Neither of these 
terms, in the first instance, bore exactly the same mean¬ 
ing which they convey to a modern ear. The con¬ 
troversy really consisted in the question, how far we 
are to suffer theory to influence our practice. While 

* Celsus, lib. i. pr. f. Schulz, p. ii. cap. 5. Lc Clerc, par. i. liv. ii. 
ch. 9. Eloy, “Partage de la Medecine.” 



236 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


the Dogmatists, or, as they were sometimes styled, the 
Rationalists, asserted that before attempting to treat 
any disease we ought to make ourselves fully 
acquainted with the nature and functions of the part 
which is affected, or rather of the body generally, with 
the operation of medical agents upon it, and with the 
changes which it undergoes when under the operation 
of any morbid cause; the Empirics, on the contrary, 
contend that this knowledge is impossible to be 
obtained, and, if possible, is not necessary;—that the 
minute and internal changes of the system, and of its 
different parts, are beyond the reach of our most acute 
observation, that it is alone essential to watch the phe¬ 
nomena of disease, and to discover what remedies are 
best fitted to relieve the morbid symptoms;—that our 
sole guide must be experience; and that, if we step 
beyond this, either as derived from our own experience 
or observation, or that of others on whose testimony we 
can rely, we are always liable to fall into dangerous 
and often fatal errors. We may remark that this con¬ 
troversy, like so many others which have occupied the 
attention of mankind for a succession of ages, is partly 
verbal, and in so far as it is not verbal, that it is a 
question of degree. The boldest Dogmatist professes 
to build his theory upon facts, and the strictest Empiric 
cannot combine his facts without some aid from theory. 
The uniform experience of all the schools and sects 
from the days of Hippocrates to the present time, 
demonstrates that the undue extension of either of 
these systems is injurious, that they both originate from 
a partial view of the subject, and may generally be 
traced to some defect either in the acquired information 
or natural disposition of the practitioner. The contro¬ 
versy, however, forms so prominent a feature in the 
history of medicine, that it will be necessary to advert 
to it very frequently in the following pages; and we 
shall find that in estimating the value of the various 
opinions or modes of practice which will successfully 
pass under our review, it will in most cases be neces- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 237 

sary to inquire from which of these sects they ema¬ 
nated.! 

Respecting the individuals to whom the origin of 
these sects should be referred, there is some degree of 
obscurity: the Dogmatists generally claim Hippocrates 
for their founder, and it is certain that he investigated 
with great care the functions of the animal body, the 
action of morbid causes upon it, and the operation of 
remedies, or, as we should style them, the general prin¬ 
ciples of pathology and therapeutics. But while in 
this respect he acted upon the principles of the Dog¬ 
matists, he was no less remarkable for the accuracy 
with which he observed the phenomena of disease, and 
the actual operation of remedies upon individual cases, 
or even upon particular symptoms; and it may be 
affirmed, that in most instances, when his preconceived 
hypothesis seemed to be in contradiction to the results 
of his experience, he wisely followed the latter. We 
may, however, easily imagine that his successors, not 
being possessed of his sagacity and industry, would 
prefer the easier method of indiscriminately adopting 
all his principles and speculations, to the more arduous 
task of correcting or extending them by their own 
observation, and that they would in this way bring 
all theoretical reasoning into disrepute. It is more 
* probable that this feeling would be gradually induced 
in the minds of practitioners, than that it would be at 
once announced by any single individual; and as a mat¬ 
ter of historical fact, the ancients themselves were 
divided in their opinion as to the person to whom they 
should ascribe the origin of the empirical sect. Pliny 
attributes it to Acron, a physician of Sicily,* * who was 
contemporary, if not prior to Hippocrates; while Celsus 
states that Serapion of Alexandria, who was said to be 
a pupil of Herophlius, was the first who distinctly pro¬ 
fessed the opinion that theory is to be totally discarded 
in medicine, and that direct experience should be our 

t For an elegant summary of the arguments employed in this con¬ 
troversy, the reader is referred to Per rival's Essays, Nos. 1 and 2. 

* Lib. xxix. cap. 1. 



238 A BIOGRAPH ICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

sole guide, f We have little correct information 
respecting either the history or the practice of Sera- 
pion; none of his writings have been transmitted to us, 
but from the scattered notices which we meet with 
concerning him, dispersed through the works of the 
ancients, it may be conjectured that he was a man of 
considerable acuteness and sagacity, and that he gen¬ 
erally adopted the practice of Hippocrates and his 
school, although he discarded their theory.^ 

All the medical men of the period at which we are 
now arrived, and for some centuries subsequent to it, 
were attached to one or other of these rival sects, and, 
it would appear, in nearly an equal proportion. 
Unfortunately, however, for the Empirics, it has hap¬ 
pened that all their writings have perished, so that we 
are obliged to form our opinion of their merits prin¬ 
cipally from the representation of their antagonists. 
There is, indeed, one happy exception in the works of 
Celsus, who, in the commencement of his treatise, has 
given an account of the leading opinions of the two 
opposing sects, in so candid and judicious a manner as 
almost to supersede any more elaborate discussion. 
It has been thought by many that the view which 
Celsus gives of the controversy is too favourable to 
the Empirics; and we admit that we can scarcely read 
his account without being impressed with the opinion, 
that he advocates their side of the question. Yet the 
conclusion which he draws is perfectly candid, and is, 
indeed, not very remote from what the most enlight¬ 
ened practitioner would form at the present day;— 
that the perfect rule of practice is derived from a due 
combination of reason and experience; that without 
experience all preconceived theory would be vain and 
useless; and that by simple experience, without any 
attempt at generalization, we should frequently fall 
into gross errors, and be unable to profit even by the 
very experience which is so much extolled. And, 


t In praef. sub initio. 

$ Schulz, per. ii. cap. iv. §. 8 et seq. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


239 


indeed, whatever may have been the professed plan of 
the supporters of the two sects, we shall always find 
that the practice of the most eminent of either party 
actually proceeded upon a judicious combination of the 
two systems; and we are now persuaded that it is upon 
such a combination that all further improvements of 
the science and practice of medicine must essentially 
depend.§ 


CHAPTER IV. 


On the State of Medicine among the Romans from its first 
Introduction into Rome until the Time of Galen—Roman 
Superstitions—Archagathus—Cato—Asclepiades—Themison 
—Origin of the Methodic Sect—Thessalus—Soranus—C. 
Aurelianus—Doctrines of the Methodics—Pneumatics and 
Eclectics—Aretseus—Archigenes—Celsus, his Doctrines and 
Practice—Condition of Physicians in Rome—Pliny—Dios- 
corides.* * 


For some centuries the school of Alexandria pro¬ 
duced a succession of learned men, not only in medi¬ 
cine but in the other sciences, and contributed to the 
advancement of knowledge, or at least prevented the 
decay into which it was in danger of falling after the 
decline of the Grecian literature. It was during this 
period that the foundation was laid of the future 
grandeur of the Roman empire; but from the atten¬ 
tion of this people being almost exclusively directed to 
warlike affairs, and perhaps also from other causes, 
science of all kinds, and medicine among the rest, was 
for a long time almost totally neglected. Rome had 
extended her empire far beyond the limits of Italy, and 


§ Galen, de Subfigurat. Empir. et alibi. Celsus, in praef. Barchusen, 
Diss. Nos. 10 & 13. Le Clerc, par. ii. liv. ii. Schulz, per. n. cap. iv. 
Sprengel, §. 4. ch. 1, 4- Ackermann, p. iii. cap. 10-13. . 

* For a concise, and at the same time a comprehensive, view of this 
period of the history of medicine, the reader is referred to the fifth 
section of Blumenbach’s Introduction. I may further remark that this 
work may be consulted with advantage, in connection with almost all 
the names that pass in succession under our review. 




240 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


had subdued most of her rivals, before she conde¬ 
scended even to tolerate the pursuit of the arts and 
sciences. We are expressly told by Pliny, that for six 
hundred years she was without physicians. We can¬ 
not conceive it possible that during this long period 
no attempts were made to remove diseases; we can only 
understand by it that there were no individuals eminent 
for their knowledge or skill who were engaged in the 
profession, or perhaps that it was scarcely regarded as 
the object of distinct pursuit, or that individuals were 
not especially trained to the exercise of it. We have, 
indeed, abundant evidence of two circumstances; that 
in this, as in every other subject connected with the 
arts of life, the Romans servilely copied from the 
Greeks,f and that, as far as their medicine was con¬ 
cerned, wherever they deviated from them it was for 
the purpose of adopting various superstitious rites and 
ceremonies, indicating the most profound ignorance 
and the grossest superstition. Numerous instances of 
this kind are incidentally mentioned by Livy; and 
although he wrote in the refined age and splendid court 
of Augustus, they are introduced in the thread of his 
narrative as actual transactions, without any observa¬ 
tion indicative of his disbelief of their efficacy.^ One 
of these is the account which he gives us of the intro¬ 
duction of the worship of ^sculapius into Rome. In 
consequence of a fatal epidemic, the senate had 
recourse to the usual expedient of consulting the 
Sibylline books, where it was found to be enjoined 
upon them to transfer the worship of the god from 
Greece to their city. A formal deputation was accord¬ 
ingly despatched for the purpose, by whom the deity, 
unwilling to leave his native place, was seized by a 


t Suetonius, de Grammat. sub initio; the fact is admitted by Cicero 
and by Pliny, and is frequently alluded to in various parts of their 
writings. 

t The following references may be selected among many others of 
a similar kind:—Book i. ch. 31, Tullus consults the Sibylline books in 
order to stop the plague;—iv. 25, for the same purpose a temple is 
erected to Apollo;—v. 13, the books were again consulted;—vii. 2, a 
lectisternium was ordered for the same purpose, and afterward the 
public games;—vii. 3, the plague was stopped by the dictator driving a 
nail. 



OF MFDICAIv HISTORY 


24 I 


stratagem, and was conveyed under the form of a ser¬ 
pent into Italy. He was received by the people of 
Rome with unbounded transport; a temple was erected 
to him on an island in the Tiber; the usual appendages 
of priests, with all their ceremonies, were appointed; 
and the plague was of course suspended.§ 

Pliny further informs us that medicine was intro¬ 
duced into Rome at a later period than most of the 
other arts and sciences; that the practice of it had even 
been expressly prohibited by the citizens, and its pro¬ 
fessors banished. The account which he gives of so 
singular an occurrence is, that about two hundred 
years before Christ, Archagathus, a Peloponnesian, 
settled at Rome as a practitioner of medicine, and, as it 
may be inferred, was the first person who made it a 
distinct profession. He was received in the first 
instance with great respect, and was even maintained 
at the public expense; but his practice was observed to 
be so severe and unsuccessful, that he soon excited the 
dislike of the people at large, and produced a complete 
disgust to the profession generally, which led to the 
transaction mentioned above.* * His practice seems to 
have been almost exclusively surgical, and to have con¬ 
sisted, in a great measure, in the use of the knife and 
of powerful caustic applications. We hear little more 
of the state of medicine in Rome for the next century; 
but from certain incidental observations we may infer 
that it remained principally in the hands of the priests, 
and consisted as before in superstitious rites and cere¬ 
monies. It appears, indeed, that the few individuals 
who devoted themselves to the cultivation of natural 
science, among other subjects directed their attention 
to medicine; and it is particularly stated that Cato 
introduced various articles into the materia medica, and 
wrote several treatises on medical topics. We are not 
able to form any just conception of their merit from 

§ Livius, lib. x. cap. 47, et epitome ad lib. xi. Val. Maximus, lib. 
i. cap. 8. §. 2. Schulz, p. ii. cap. 6. §. 4 et seq. Montfaucon, Antiq. 
Suppl. v. i. b. v. ch. 1. Lucianus, Tooke’s Trans, v. i. p. 635, note. 

* Tib. xxix. cap. x. 

16 



242 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

the account which is given of them; but it is worthy 
of remark that he was a professed opponent to Grecian 
literature in general, and we may therefore conclude, 
would not avail himself of the improvements that had 
been made by the Greek physicians.f 

We may presume that the prejudice which was 
excited against Archagathus would be gradually 
allayed, and that the improvement of the Romans in 
intellectual cultivation, although not considerable, 
would be at least sufficient to make them sensible of 
the necessity of attempting something beyond the mere 
power of charms and incantations for the removal of 
disease. Accordingly, about a century before the Chris¬ 
tian era, we find that another individual had acquired 
a very considerable degree of popularity at Rome, 
which he maintained through life, and in a certain 
degree transmitted to his successors,—Asclepiades of 
Bithynia. It is said that he first came to Rome as a 
teacher of rhetoric, and that it was in consequence of 
his not being successful in his profession that he turned 
his attention to the study of medicine. From what we 
learn of his history and of his practice, it would appear 
that he may be fairly characterized as a man of natural 
talents, acquainted with human nature, or rather with 
human weakness, and possessed of considerable 
shrewdness and address, but with little science or pro¬ 
fessional skill. He began upon the plan which is so 
generally found successful by those who are conscious 
of their own ignorance, of vilifying the principles and 
practice of his predecessors, and of asserting that he 
had discovered a more compendious and effective mode 
of treating diseases than had been before known to the 
world. As he was ignorant of anatomy and pathology, 
he decried the labours of those who sought to investi¬ 
gate the structure of the body, or to watch the phe¬ 
nomena of disease, and he is said to have directed his 
attacks more particularly against the writings of Hip- 

f Le Clerc, par. ii. liv. iii. ch. i. Schulz, p. ii. cap. 6. Ackermann, 
p. iv. cap. is- 



OR ME)DICAIy HISTORY 


243 


pocrates. It appears, however, that he had the discre¬ 
tion to refrain from the use of very active and power¬ 
ful remedies, and to trust principally to the efficacy of 
diet, exercise, bathing, and other circumstances of this 
nature. A part of the great popularity which he 
enjoyed depended upon his prescribing the liberal use 
of wine to his patients, and upon his attending in all 
cases, with great assiduity, not only to every thing 
which contributed to their comfort, but that he flat¬ 
tered their prejudices and indulged their inclinations. 
By the due application of these means, and from the 
state of the people among whom he practised, we may, 
without much difficulty, account for the great eminence 
to which he arrived, and we cannot fail to recognise 
in Asclepiades the prototype of more than one popular 
physician of modern times. 

Justice, however, obliges us to admit that he seems 
to have been possessed of a considerable share of acute¬ 
ness and discernment, which on some occasions he 
employed with advantage. It is said that to him we 
are indebted, in the first instance, for the arrangement 
of diseases into the two great classes of acute and 
chronic, a division which has a real foundation in 
nature, and which still forms an important feature in 
the most improved modern nosology. In his philosoph¬ 
ical principles Asclepiades is said to have been a fol¬ 
lower of Epicurus, and to have adopted his doctrine of 
atoms and pores, on which he attempted to build a new 
theory of disease, by supposing that all morbid action 
might be reduced into obstruction of the pores and 
irregular distribution of the atoms. This theory he 
accommodated to his division of diseases,—the acute 
being supposed to depend essentially upon a constric¬ 
tion of the pores, or an obstruction of them by a super¬ 
fluity of atoms; the chronic, upon a relaxation of the 
pores or a deficiency of the atoms.* 

* Plinius, passim. Celsus, ubi supra et alibi. Le Clerc, par. ii. liv. 
iii. ch. 4-9. Sprengel, sect. 5. ch. 1. Cabanis, ch. 2, §. 5. Goulin, 
Encyc. Meth., Medecine, “Asclepiade.” Chaussier et Adelon, in Biog. 
Univ., “Asclepiade.” 



.244 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

Asclepiades was succeeded in his professional repu¬ 
tation by his pupil Themison of Laodicea, who had the 
honour of founding a new sect in medicine, which for 
some time almost eclipsed the former rivals; this was 
the Methodic sect. The great object of Themison 
seems to have been to adopt a middle course between 
the Dogmatists and the Empirics, and to take advan¬ 
tage of the excellences of each of them. He was, how¬ 
ever, strongly impressed with the great principles of 
Asclepiades, the importance of reducing the science to 
a few general laws, which by their simplicity might be 
universally intelligible and of easy application. He 
therefore rejected all the abstruse and recondite specu¬ 
lations of the Dogmatists, and substituted in their place 
a few positions derived from the tenets of his master, 
and founded upon the Epicurean doctrines. He 
remarks that it is an essential part of the business of 
the practitioner to make himself acquainted with the 
nature of the human frame, with its laws while in the 
state of health, and with the changes which they exper¬ 
ience from disease. All these he referred to the 
respective states of constriction and relaxation, and to 
the undue preponderance of one of them over the other. 
To these two, however, he added a third, or mixed 
state, as he styled it, the nature of which is not very 
easy to understand; while by classing all medical 
agents under the two great divisions of astringents 
and relaxants, we learn how to apply the appropriate 
remedy for every disease. 

Themison’s doctrine must be regarded as a refine¬ 
ment, and certainly an improvement of that of Ascle¬ 
piades ; for although we have the states of constriction 
and relaxation professedly copied from his master, it 
is disencumbered of the more objectionable speculation 
of the atoms and pores. The theory of the Methodics 
contemplates the solids as the seat and cause of disease, 
in which respect it is directly opposed to that of Hippoc¬ 
rates, who traced the primary cause of disease to an 
affection of the fluids, giving rise to what has been 


OF MFDICAIy HISTORY 


245 


termed the Humoral Pathology. The humoral pathol¬ 
ogy was zealously defended by Galen, and was uni¬ 
versally adopted by his successors until the seventeenth 
century, when the opposite doctrine of Solidism was 
revived, and has been gaining ground until the present 
day. It has been justly objected to Themison’s theory, 
that even if we admit the correctness of his views 
respecting the states of constriction and relaxation of 
the system, there is a palpable absurdity in supposing 
that they can be co-existent in what he terms his middle 
state, as they are directly opposed to each other. 

There is no work of Themison’s extant, but we have 
an ample account of his practice in the writings of 
Cselius Aurelianus, who was a zealous defender of the 
tenets of the Methodic sect. They appear to have been 
diligent in the observation of the phenomena of disease, 
and sagacious in their employment of remedies: they 
seem, indeed, to have sustained their character, of keep¬ 
ing a middle course between the Dogmatists and 
Empirics, avoiding the extremes of either, and combin¬ 
ing the more useful parts of each system in a greater 
degree than had been done by their predecessors.f 

For some time after the death of Themison the opin¬ 
ions of the Methodics were generally adopted in Rome, 
and almost superseded those of the professed Dog¬ 
matists and Empirics, so that we shall have little to 
detain us in our progress, except to notice certain indi¬ 
viduals who became remarkable from their personal 
history or character, or from some peculiarity in their 
opinions or practice. The first of this description in 
point of time is Thessalus, who lived about half a cen¬ 
tury after Themison, and who ranks as one of his fol¬ 
lowers. He was, however, an individual very different, 
both in character and in acquirements, from his master. 
He is stated tc have been of mean birth and of defect¬ 
ive education, but, by cunning and artifice, to have 
acquired great wealth and a high reputation. He 

f CeJsus, in praef. Le Clerc, p. ii. liv. iv. sect. 1, ch. 1. Barchusen, 
Diss. ii. Sprengel, t ii, t>. 20-3. Ackermann per iv. ch 17. 



246 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

began his career, in the usual mode of ignorance and 
self-sufficiency, by endeavouring to throw contempt on 
all his predecessors and contemporaries, by pretending 
to expose their errors, and by claiming to himself the 
discovery of a new theory of medicine which should 
lead to more correct practice, and should supersede all 
further attempts of the kind; in fine, he assumed to 
himself the pompous title of the conqueror of physi¬ 
cians (larpovues) * 

We shall not have occasion to dwell long upon one 
who is so unworthy of a place in the records of science; 
it is only necessary to remark concerning him, that he 
appears to have united the speculations of Asclepiades 
with those of Themison, and to have admitted the 
atoms and pores of the one, with the constriction and 
relaxation of the other. The only addition which Thes- 
salus made to medical theory which deserves our notice, 
is the introduction of what he terms metasyncrasis, 
or the method of producing an entire change in the 
state of the body. This he opposed to the practice of 
Hippocrates, who professed to watch over and regulate 
the actions of the system, as well as to that of the 
Empirics, whose aim was to correct specific morbid 
actions, or to remove particular morbid symptoms. 
The term, as conveying a conceivable if not an actual 
occurrence, was not without its value, and was generally 
adopted by medical writers; and even in the present 
day the principle implied in it serves as the foundation 
for some of our most important indications.f 

The name of Soranus next occurs among the cele¬ 
brated Roman practitioners. There is, indeed, some 
reason for supposing that there were no less than three 
physicians of this name, but the one who is most 
eminent appears to have been a native of Ephesus, to 
have studied at Alexandria, and finally to have settled 

* Plinius, lib. xxix. cap. 1.—We have an amusing, and probably 
a correct, account given us by Lucian, of the successful knavery prac¬ 
tised by an impostor of his age, named Alexander; see Tooke’s Trans., 
v. i. p. 630 et seq. He appears to have been a worthy successor of 
Thessalus, so far as respects his arrogance and presumption. 

t Le Clerc, p. ii. liv. iv. sect. 1, ch. 2, 3. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 28-31. 



V 'T\ 














OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


247 


in Rome. He was a strict Methodic, and is said to 
have been highly respected for his character and tal¬ 
ents. His writings have not been transmitted to us, 
but probably the most valuable information which they 
contain is handed down to us by C. Aurelianus, whose 
work, if not, as some have supposed, a translation of 
Soranus’s treatise, proceeds upon the same principles, 
and inculcates the same practice.^ • 

There is considerable uncertainty respecting both 
the age and country of C. Aurelianus. Some writers 
place him as early as the first century of the Christian 
era, while others endeavor to prove that he was at 
least a century later. This opinion is principally 
founded upon the circumstance of his not mentioning 
or being mentioned by Galen, indicating that they were 
contemporaries or rivals. Numidia has been generally 
assigned as his native country, but perhaps without any 
direct evidence; it may, however, be concluded from 
the imperfection of his style, and the incorrectness of 
some of the terms which he employs, that he was not a 
native either of Greece or of Italy. But whatever 
doubts may attach to his personal history, and what¬ 
ever defects exist in his writings, they afford us much 
valuable information respecting the state of medical 
science. He was a professed and zealous Methodic, 
and it is principally from his work that we are able to 
obtain a correct view of the principles and practice of 
this sect. In his descriptions of the phenomena of 
disease he displays considerable accuracy of observation 
and diagnostic sagacity; and he describes some diseases 
which are not to be met with in any other ancient 
author. He gives us a very ample and minute detail 
of the practice which was adopted both by himself and 
his contemporaries; and it must be acknowledged that 
on these points his remarks display a competent knowl¬ 
edge of his subject, united to a clear and comprehen¬ 
sive judgment. 

He divides diseases into the two great classes of 


the Clerc, par. ii. liv. sect. 1, ch. 4. Sprenget, t. ii. p. 33-5. 



248 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

acute and chronic, nearly corresponding to diseases 
of constriction and of relaxation, and upon these sup¬ 
posed states he founds his primary indications; but 
with respect to the intimate nature of these states of 
the system, as well as of all hidden or recondite causes 
generally, he thinks it unnecessary to inquire, provided 
we can recognise their existence, and can discover the 
means of removing them. Hence his writings are less 
theoretical and more decidedly practical than those of 
any other author of antiquity; and they consequently 
contributed more to the advancement of the knowledge 
and actual treatment of disease than any that had pre¬ 
ceded them. They contributed in an especial manner 
to perfect the knowledge of therapeutics, by ascertain¬ 
ing with precision the proper indications of cure, with 
the means best adapted for fulfilling them. The great 
defect of C. Aurelianus, a defect which was inherent 
in the sect to which he belonged, was that of placing 
too much dependence upon the twofold division of dis¬ 
eases, and not sufficiently attending to the minute 
shades by which they gradually run into each other; a 
defect the more remarkable in one who shows so much 
attention to the phenomena of disease, and who, for 
the most part, allows himself to be so little warped 
by preconceived hypothesis. This view of the subject 
leads him not unfrequently to reject active and decisive 
remedies, when he could not reconcile their operation 
to his supposed indications; so that, although his prac¬ 
tice is seldom what can be styled bad, it is occasionally 
defective. 

There were two points in which C. Aurelianus, and 
the Methodics generally, decidedly opposed the doc¬ 
trines and practice of the followers of Hippocrates, 
in trusting the removal of disease to the restorative 
powers of nature, and in attributing diseases to the 
excess or defect of particular humours. With respect 
to the former point, they conceived that it was as fre¬ 
quently necessary to oppose as to promote the natural 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


249 


actions of the system; and with respect to the latter, 
they did not admit the existence of the supposed four 
humours; and even, if their existence could be proved, 
they did not conceive that they were in possession of 
the means of acting upon them individually or specific¬ 
ally. 

In the treatment of acute diseases, or those of con¬ 
striction, the cure was effected by topical bleeding (for 
general bleeding was rarely admitted), and by narcotic 
and oleaginous applications, aided by a pure and some¬ 
times by a moist air. Abstinence was strictly enjoined, 
and indeed often carried to an undue length; and in the 
administration of all remedies the practitioner was fre¬ 
quently guided by critical periods, generally of three, 
or in other cases of seven days. When the ordinary 
means of cure were found not to be successful, or when 
any circumstance occurred which appeared to contra¬ 
indicate their application, C. Aurelianus had recourse 
to a preparatory system. This consisted principally in 
certain regulations regarding diet and exercise, in the 
use of the bath, frictions, and other external applica¬ 
tions ; when the system was thus prepared, the ordinary 
plan of treatment was had recourse to. Inflammatory 
diseases were supposed to depend upon constriction; 
abstinence, rest, and friction were enjoined in the first 
instance; bleeding, general or local, baths, and certain 
vegetable preparations were then administered, while 
purgatives seem to have been seldom if ever employed. 
Little regard appears to have been paid to particular 
symptoms,and upon the whole we should be disposed 
to consider the practice as deficient in promptness and 
vigour, and not very unlike that which prevails at this 
day in many parts of the Continent. We have men¬ 
tioned above that C. Aurelianus seldom employed pur¬ 
gatives,—an unfortunate prejudice, by which he 
deprived himself of one of the most useful agents in 
the cure of disease; he also generally condemns the use 
of what are termed specifics,—an error, if it be one, 


250 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

much more venial; he very sparingly employs diuretics, 
condemns narcotics, and rejects caustics and all similar 
applications.* 

Although the Methodic sect continued to prevail 
among the Roman physicians during the greatest part 
of the first two centuries of the Christian era, some 
alteration in the original tenets of Themison were 
gradually introduced, and it at length became sub¬ 
divided into several minor sects or schools, which 
although agreeing in certain fundamental principles, 
had each their peculiar views, which led to their separa¬ 
tion from the main body, and to the adoption of specific 
appellations. Two of these were of sufficient notoriety 
to require being individually mentioned in this sketch, 
—the Pneumatics, and the Eclectics or Episynthetics. 

The Pneumatics rose into notice about half a century 
after the death of Themison. They derive their appel¬ 
lation from the circumstance of their having intro¬ 
duced into their pathology the agency of what is 
termed the spirits (msu/ia), which, together with the 
solids and fluids, compose the corporeal frame. It 
would be somewhat difficult to state, in a few words, to 
what supposed substance or power the term was 
applied; we may observe in it some traces of the pneu¬ 
matic physiology of the modern chymists, while in 
some of its agencies it resembles the nervous influence. 
This sect has acquired considerable celebrity from the 
name of an eminent medical writer, which has been 
generally attached to it, that of Aretaeus. 

There is some uncertainty respecting both the age 
and the country of Aretaeus; but it seems probable that 
he practised in the reign of Vespasian, and he is usually 
styled the Cappadocian. He wrote a general treatise 
on diseases, which is still extant, and is certainly one 
of the most valuable reliques of antiquity, displaying 
great accuracy in the detail of symptoms, and in seiz- 

* Vide Opus, de Morb. Acut et Chron. Le Clerc, par. ii. liv. iv. 
sect, x, ch. 5-11; we have in this author a very ample account of the 
principles and practice of the Methodics. Barchusen, Diss. 11, §. 5. 
Haller, Bib. Med. §. 72. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 37 et seq. Eloy, in loco. 
Biog. Univ. in loco. 



OF MEDICAIv HISTORY 


251 


ing the diagnostic character of diseases. In his prac¬ 
tice he follows, for the most part, the method of Hip¬ 
pocrates, but he paid less attention to what have been 
styled the natural actions of the system; and/contrary 
to the practice of the father of medicine, he did not 
hesitate to attempt to counteract them, when they 
appeared to him to be injurious. The account which 
he gives of his treatment of various diseases indicates 
a simple and sagacious system, and one of more energy 
than that of the professed Methodics. Thus he freely 
administered active purgatives; he did not object to 
narcotics; he was much less averse to bleeding; and 
upon the whole his materia medica was both ample and 
efficient. It may be asserted generally, that there are 
few of the ancient physicians, since the time of Hippoc¬ 
rates, who appear to have been less biased by attach¬ 
ment to any peculiar set of opinions, and whose account 
of the phenomena and treatment of disease has better 
stood the test of subsequent experience. We have 
placed Aretseus among the Pneumatics, because he 
maintained the doctrines which are peculiar to this sect, 
and because he is generally considered as such by most 
systematic writers, although perhaps, strictly speaking, 
he is better entitled to be placed with the Eclectics.* 
Of the sect of the Eclectics we know little except 
through the medium of the writings of their opponents. 
The most celebrated of them was Archigenes of 
Appamea, who practised at Rome in the time of Tra¬ 
jan, and enjoyed a very high reputation for his profes¬ 
sional skill. He is, however, reprobated as having been 
fond of introducing new and obscure terms into the 
science, and having attempted to give to medical writ¬ 
ings a dialectic form, which produced rather the 
appearance than the reality of accuracy. Archigenes 
published a treatise on the pulse, on which Galen has 
written a commentary; it appears to have contained a 

* Le Clerc, par. ii. liv. iv. sect. 1, ch. 2-3.. Barchusen, piss. 15, p. 
232 et seq. Haller, Bib. Med. §. 64. Bloy, in loco. Goultn, Encyc. 
Method. Medecine, t. iii. p. 385 et seq. Sprengel, 1.11. p. 82-7. Chaus- 
sier et Adelon, Biog. Univ. “Aretee.” 



252 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

number of minute and subtile distinctions, many of 
which we may venture to affirm have no real existence, 
and to have been, for the most part, the result rather 
of a preconceived hypothesis than of actual observa¬ 
tion ; and the same remark may be applied to an 
arrangement which he proposed of fevers. He, how¬ 
ever, not only enjoyed a considerable degree of the 
public confidence during his lifetime, but left behind 
him a number of disciples, who for many years main¬ 
tained a respectable rank in their profession.f 

It may appear singular that we have so many 
instances of individuals who have risen to great emi¬ 
nence, both from their professional skill and general 
science, but of whose private history we possess so 
little information. This is very remarkably the case 
with Celsus. We know little of his age, his origin, or 
even of his actual profession. There are some inci¬ 
dental expressions which lead to the conjecture that he 
lived under the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, and 
particularly the mode in which he refers to Themison 
would indicate that they were either contemporaries, 
or that Themison preceded him by a short period only. 
With respect to the country of Celsus we have nothing 
on which to ground our opinion, except the purity of 
his style, which at most would prove no more than that 
he had been educated, and passed a considerable part of 
his life at Rome. 

With regard to his profession, it has been doubted 
whether he was a practitioner of medicine, or whether 
he only studied it as a branch of general science after 
the manner of some of the ancient Greek philosophers. 
This doubt has arisen principally from the mode in 
which he is referred to by ColumellaJ and by Quin¬ 
tilian^ and by his not being enumerated by Pliny 
among the physicians of Rome in his sketch of the 

t Le Clerc, par. ii. liv. iv. sect. 2, ch. i. Barchusen, Diss. 15, p. 
240 et seq. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 75-82. 

t De Re Rust. lib. vi. cap. 5. 

§ Lib. xii. cap. 11. 



OF MEDICAIv HISTORY 


253 


history of medicine. Yet, on the other hand, it appears 
to me that his work bears very strong evidence that he 
was an actual practitioner, that he was familiar with 
the phenomena of disease and the operation of rem¬ 
edies, and that he described and recommended what 
fell under his own observation, and was sanctioned by 
his own experience; so that I conceive it, upon the 
whole, most probable that he was a physician by pro¬ 
fession, but who devoted part of his time and attention 
to the cultivation of literature and general science. 

The treatise of Celsus “On Medicine” is divided into 
eight books. It commences by a judicious sketch of 
the history of medicine, terminating by the comparison 
of the two rival sects, the Dogmatists and the Empirics, 
which has been referred to above. The two next books 
are principally occupied by the consideration of diet, 
and the general principles of therapeutics and pathol¬ 
ogy : the remaining books are devoted to the considera¬ 
tion of particular diseases and their treatment, the 
third and fourth to internal diseases, the fifth and sixth 
to external diseases and to pharmaceutical preparations, 
and the two last to those diseases which more partic¬ 
ularly belong to surgery. In the treatment of disease, 
he for the most part pursues the method of Ascle- 
piades; he is not, however, servilely attached to him, 
and never hesitates to adopt any practice or opinion, 
however contrary to his, which he conceived to be sanc¬ 
tioned by direct experience. He adopted, to a certain 
extent, the Hippocratean method of observing and 
watching over the operations of nature, and rather 
regulating than opposing them, a method which, with 
respect to acute diseases, may frequently appear inert. 
But there are occasions on which he displays consider¬ 
able decision and boldness, and particularly in the use 
of the lancet, which he employed with more freedom 
than any of his predecessors. His regulations for the 
employment of bloodletting and of purgatives are laid 
down with minuteness and precision; and although he 


254 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


was, in some measure, led astray by his hypothesis of 
the crudity and concoction of the humours, the rules 
which he prescribed were not very different from those 
which were generally adopted in the commencement of 
the present century. His description of the symptoms 
of fever, and of the different varieties which it assumes, 
either from the nature of the epidemic, or from the 
circumstances under which it takes place, are correct 
and judicious; his practice was founded upon the prin¬ 
ciples so often referred to, of watching the operations 
of nature, conceiving that fever consists essentially 
in an effort of the constitution to throw off some 
morbid cause, and that, if not unduly interfered with, 
the process would terminate in a state of health. We 
here see the germ of the doctrine of the vis medicatix 
naturev, which has had so much influence over the prac¬ 
tice of the most enlightened physicians of modern 
times, and which, although erroneous, has perhaps led 
to a less hazardous practice than the hypotheses which 
have been substituted in its room. 

But perhaps the most curious and interesting parts 
of the work of Celsus are those which treat of surgery 
and surgical operations. It is very remarkable that he 
is almost the first writer who professedly treats on these 
topics, and yet his descriptions of the diseases and of 
their treatment prove that the art had attained to a 
very considerable degree of perfection. Many of what 
are termed the capital operations seem to have been 
well understood and frequently practised, and we may 
safely assert, that the state of surgery, at the time 
when Celsus wrote, was comparatively much more 
advanced than that of medicine. The pharmacy of 
Celsus forms another curious and interesting part of 
his work, and, like his surgery, marks a state of con¬ 
siderable improvement in this branch of the art. Many 
of his formulae are well arranged and efficacious, and 
on the whole they may be said to be more correct, and 
even more scientific, than the multifarious compounds 
which were afterward introduced into practice, and 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 255 

which were not completely discarded until our own 
times.* * 

There is one circumstance respecting Celsus which 
requires to be noticed, that he is the first native Roman 
physician whose name has been transmitted to us. 
Before his time all those who arrived at any degree of 
eminence were either Greeks or Asiatics, and it would 
appear that the native practitioners were either slaves 
or persons from the lower ranks of life, who acted in 
the subordinate branches of the profession.* This cir¬ 
cumstance may be attributed partly to the low state of 
science in Rome, even during the period when litera¬ 
ture had advanced to a considerable eminence, and still 
more to the idea of degradation or servility which 
seems to have been attached to the exercise of any art 
or profession for the sake of gain. All the trades and 
manufactures of Rome were therefore carried on by 
slaves, and medicine seems to have been placed in the 
same class. It must, however, be observed, that many 
individuals who were brought to Rome as slaves, either 
by their natural talents or by some favourable conjunc¬ 
ture of circumstance, overcame the disadvantages of 
their situation, and made considerable acquirements in 
different departments of knowledge, and among others 
in that of medicine. One of the most celebrated of 
these is Antonius Musa, who was appointed physician 
to Augustus, and obtained great celebrity from his 
practical skill: we are told that he was a pupil of 
Themison, and it appears that he remained attached 
to the Methodic sect.f 

Before we close this part of our history, it will be 
necessary to take some notice of a class of writers, 

* Le Clerc, par. 2. liv. iv. sect. 2, ch. 4, 5. Barchusen, diss. 15, p. 
231, 2. Morgagni, Epistolae in Celsum. Haller, Bib. Med. t. i. §. 49. 
Eloy, in loco. Nouv. Diet. Hist, in loco. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 25-8. Black’s 
Hist of Medicine, p. 63*82. Goulin, Encyc. Meth. Medecine, in loco. 
Petit-Radel, Biog. Univ. “Celse.” 

* Le Clerc, par. 3. liv. i. ch. 2. The condition of the practitioners 
of Medicine in Rome was the subject of a learned controversy between 
Mead and Middleton; see Life of Mead, prefixed to his works, v. i. p. 
13, Edin. 1765, and Aikin’s Gen. Biog. art. “Middleton.” 

t Haller, Bib. Med. t. i. p. 150, 1. Eloy, in loco. Aikin’s Gen. 
Biog. in loco. 



256 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

whose names or works are transmitted to us, who par¬ 
ticularly devoted themselves to the improvement of 
pharmacy. The first of these was Scribonius Largus, 
who flourished in the reign of Claudius. He appears 
to have been, like Musa, originally a slave, and it may 
be conjectured from his work “On the Composition of 
Medicines,” which has been transmitted to us, that he 
was never able to supply the deficiency of his educa¬ 
tion. It is a mere collection of nostrums and formulae, 
without arrangement or discrimination, and is solely 
valuable as indicating the state of the art at the time 
of its publication.^ 

Andromachus, a native of Crete, who lived under 
the reign of Nero, is principally known to posterity as 
the inventor of certain compounded pharmaceutical 
preparations, one of which, the theriaca, obtained so 
much celebrity as to have been retained in our pharma¬ 
copoeia until the close of the last century. It was com¬ 
posed of no less than sixty-one ingredients, which 
were combined together with much ceremony and no 
inconsiderable degree of labour and skill. Its essential 
ingredient, from which it derived its name, was the 
dried flesh of vipers, against the bites of which animals 
it was supposed to be an antidote. But its supposed 
medical virtues were equal to the number of articles of 
which it consisted, so that there was scarcely a disease 
for which the theriaca of Andromachus has not been 
proposed as a remedy. Andromachus is further re¬ 
markable as being the first individual on whom the title 
of Archiater, or principal physician, was bestowed by 
the emperors—a title which was continued for several 
centuries.§ 

We have next to notice an author of just celebrity, 
whose writings form one of the most valuable remains 
of antiquity,—Pliny the naturalist. Although not at¬ 
tached to the medical profession, and even, as appears 

t Haller, Bib. Bot. t. p. 76, 7. and Bib. Med. lib. i. §. 51, t. i. p. 
166, 7. Eloy. in loco. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 55. 

§ Le Clerc, par. 3, liv. ii. ch. 1. Eloy, in loco. Haller, Bib. Med. 
lib. i §. 56, t i. p. 178, 9. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


257 


from many of his remarks, by no means favourably 
disposed to it, in various parts of his great work he 
affords us much important information, both direct and 
indirect, respecting the history of medicine in all its 
branches, and more especially in all that concerns 
materia medica and pharmacy. || We meet with a 
great number of curious facts and remarks upon these 
subjects, so that we are enabled from them to form a 
tolerably complete conception of the state of medical 
science in the age in which he wrote. We learn from 
his works that the ordinary practice was, in a con¬ 
siderable degree, what may be termed empirical, con¬ 
sisting in the application of certain remedies for certain 
diseases, without any inquiry into their mode of opera¬ 
tion. The materia medica, which was extensive, con¬ 
sisted principally of vegetable products, and these 
combined together in various forms, but without any 
regard to what we should now regard as scientific 
principles, either chymical or pharmaceutical. We find 
that they possessed various active remedies, adapted 
to the greatest part of the most important indications, 
so far as they could be obtained from vegetable or ani¬ 
mal substances, but that in the application of them they 
frequently proceeded upon incorrect principles. 

Another writer who lived about the same time with 
Pliny, and who, although less distinguished for general 
science, holds a conspicuous rank among the medical 
authors of this period, is Dioscorides. The same 
obscurity hangs over every thing which regards the 
personal history of Dioscorides, as over that of so many 
individuals to whom we have had occasion to refer. 
It is generally supposed that he was a native of Asia 
Minor, and that he was a physician by profession. It 
appears pretty evident that he lived in the second cen¬ 
tury of the Christian era, and as he is not mentioned 

II The late illustrious naturalist Cuvier has formed what I conceive 
to be a very just and candid estimate of the literary and philosophical 
character of Pliny, Biog. Univ. t. xxxv. in loco; the same inserted into 
the translation of Pliny by M. Aj. de Grandsagne, t. i. p. 85. See 
Eloy, in loco, for a list of the various editions, &c. of Pliny; he enumer¬ 
ates one hundred and ten, of which it is worthy of notice that two 
only were printed in England. Haller, Bib. Bot. t. i. p. 91-8. 

17 



A BIOGRAPH I CAE CYCLOPEDIA 


258 

by Pliny, it has been supposed that he was a little pos¬ 
terior to him. The exact age of Dioscorides has, how¬ 
ever, been a question of much critical discussion, and 
we have nothing but conjecture which can lead us to 
decide upon it. He has left behind him a treatise on 
the materia medica, a work of great labour and 
research, and which, for many ages, was received as a 
standard production. The greater correctness of mod¬ 
ern science, and the new discoveries which have been 
made, cause it now to be regarded rather as a work of 
curiosity than of absolute utility; but in drawing up a 
history of the state and progress of medicine, it affords 
a most valuable document for our information. His 
treatise consists of a description of all the articles then 
used in medicine, with an account of their supposed 
virtues. The descriptions are brief, and not unfre- 
quently so little characterized, as not to enable us to 
ascertain with any degree of accuracy to what they 
refer, while to the practical part of his work the same 
remark nearly applies, that was made above with 
respect to Pliny, that it is, in a great measure, empire 
ical, although his general principles, as far as they can 
be detected, appear to be those of the Dogmatic sect. 
The great importance which was, for so long a period, 
attached to the works of Dioscorides has rendered them 
the subject of almost innumerable commentaries and 
criticisms, and even some of the most learned of our 
modern naturalists have not thought it an unworthy 
task to attempt the illustration of his Materia Medica. 
Upon the whole, we must attribute to him the merit 
of great industry and patient research, and it seems 
but just to ascribe a large portion of the errors and 
inaccuracies into which he has fallen, more to the 
imperfect state of science when he wrote than to any 
defect in the character and talents of the writer.* 

* Le Clerc, par. iii. liv. ii. ch. 2. Eloy, in loco, where we have an 
account of the various editions, comments, translations, &c. Sprengel, 
t. ii. p. 58-64. Ackermann, p. 4. cap. 19. Haller, Bib. Bot. t. i. p. 
79-87. Goulin, Encyc. Meth. Medecine, “Dioscoride.” Du-Petit-Thouars, 
Biog. Univ. in loco. 



OF MFDICAIy HISTORY 


259 


CHAPTER V. 

Account of the opinions and practice of Galen—His history 

and education—Remarks on his character and writings— 

His physiology, anatomy, pathology, and practice. 

The course of our narrative brings us to one of those 
extraordinary characters who are destined to form an 
era in the history of science, both from the actual 
improvements which they have introduced into it, and 
from the ascendency which their genius enabled them 
to acquire over the minds of their contemporaries. Of 
these, one of the most remarkable that ever appeared, 
either in ancient or in modern times, is Galen. Galen 
enjoyed, both from birth and from education, every 
natural and acquired advantage; his father was a man 
of rank, and his education appears to have been con¬ 
ducted upon the most liberal and judicious plan. He 
studied philosophy in the various schools that were then 
in the highest estimation, and without exclusively 
attaching himself to any one of them, he is said to have 
taken from each what he conceived to be the most 
important parts of their systems, with the exception 
of the Epicurean, the tenets of which he entirely 
rejected. His professional studies were conducted 
upon an equally extensive plan; he attended the various 
schools and travelled through different countries for 
the express purpose of acquiring information; but it 
may be presumed that his knowledge of medicine was 
principally acquired in Alexandria, which still retained 
its character as the great depository of medical science. 
After passing a few years at his native city of Per- 
gamus, spending some time at Rome, and again at Per- 
gamus, he finally returned to Rome, in consequence of 
the express request of the Emperor Aurelius, and made 
that city his residence for the remainder of his life. 

The works which Galen left behind him are very 


26 O A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

numerous, amounting in the whole to about two hun¬ 
dred distinct treatises; they are all on subjects directly 
or indirectly connected with medicine, and exhibit a 
great extent of knowledge on the subjects of which he 
treats, and a degree of information, as far as we can 
judge, greater than that of any of his contemporaries. 
He appears also to have been a man of a superior 
mind and of a very decided character; confident in his 
own powers, and paying but little attention to the 
opinions of others. Hence he may be accused of 
arrogance and want of candour, and he can only be 
defended upon the principle that he was so far in 
advance of his contemporaries, as to be fully convinced 
of the futility of their reasoning and the deficiency of 
their information. The result was, that he gained that 
superiority over his contemporaries which he assumed, 
and actually acquired a sway over public opinion, on 
all points connected with medicine, which has never 
been obtained by any individual either before or since 
his time. The rank which Galen held in the medical 
world has been compared not unaptly to that which 
Aristotle possessed in the world of general science. 
For centuries after his death his doctrines and tenets 
were regarded almost in the light of oracles, which few 
persons had the courage to oppose; and all the im¬ 
provements in medicine which were even contemplated, 
consisted of little more than illustrations of his doc¬ 
trines or commentaries on his writings. In numberless 
instances it was deemed a sufficient argument, not 
merely against an hypothesis, but even against an 
alleged matter of fact, that it was contrary to the 
opinion of Galen; and it may be stated without exag¬ 
geration, that the authority of Galen alone was esti¬ 
mated at a much higher rate than that of all the medical 
writers combined, who flourished during a period of 
more than twelve centuries. 

Although such a brilliant reputation might, in some 
measure, depend upon accidental circumstances, and 
upon the mere personal character of the individual, we 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


26 l 

may fairly presume that there must have been a foun¬ 
dation of a more solid nature: and upon an actual sur¬ 
vey of the writings of Galen, we shall find ample reason 
to conclude that he was a man of great talents and of 
very extensive acquirements. In his general principles 
he may be considered as belonging to the Dogmatic 
sect, for his method was to reduce all his knowledge, 
as acquired by the observation of facts, to general theo¬ 
retical principles. These principles he indeed pro¬ 
fessed to deduce from experience and observation, and 
we have abundant proofs of his diligence in collecting 
experience, and his accuracy in making observations. 
But still, in a certain sense at least, he regards individ¬ 
ual facts and the detail of experience as of little value, 
unconnected with the principles which he laid down 
as the basis of all medical reasoning. In this funda¬ 
mental point, therefore, the method pursued by Galen 
appears to have been directly the reverse of that which 
we now consider the correct method of scientific 
investigation; and yet, such is the force of natural gen¬ 
ius, that, in most instances, he attained the ultimate 
object in view, although by an indirect path. He was 
an admirer of Hippocrates, and always speaks of him 
with the most profound respect, professing to act upon 
his principles, and to do little more than to expound his 
doctrines, and support them by new facts and observa¬ 
tions. Yet in reality we have few writers whose 
works, both as to substance and manner, are more dif¬ 
ferent from each other than those of Hippocrates and 
Galen, the simplicity of the former being strongly con¬ 
trasted with the abstruseness and refinement of the 
latter. Those of his works which are the most truly 
valuable, and in which he actually rendered the greatest 
service to science are his treatises on physiology. The 
knowledge which he possessed on this subject was 
much more considerable than that of any of his contem¬ 
poraries : in all that regards the operations of the ani¬ 
mal economy he was much better acquainted with the 
facts, and much more ingenious in the application of 


262 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

them. He appears to have been well practised in ana¬ 
tomy, and especially in what may be termed patho¬ 
logical anatomy he far surpassed any of the ancients. 
His knowledge of particular structures was, in many 
respects, correct, and in his mode of classifying them 
he made no inconsiderable approach to the philosoph¬ 
ical views which have been taken of them by the anat¬ 
omists of the present day. It appears upon the whole 
probable that he was not in the habit of dissecting the 
human subject, and, indeed, this may be fairly inferred 
from his own remarks; but there is reason to suppose 
that he omitted no opportunity of examining the struc¬ 
ture of those animals which the most nearly resemble 
it, and that from them he has drawn up his descrip¬ 
tions. Considering this radical defect, it must be 
admitted that they possess great merit, and we may 
justly express our surprise at the few points in which 
they betray the imperfection of their origin.* 

The pathology of Galen was much more imperfect 
than his physiology, for in this department he was left 
to follow the bent of his speculative genius almost with¬ 
out control. He adopts, as the foundation of his theory, 
the doctrine of the four elements, and like Hippocrates, 
he supposes that the fluids are the primary seat of dis¬ 
ease. But in his application of this doctrine he intro¬ 
duced so many minute subdivisions and so much re¬ 
fined speculation, that he may be almost regarded as the 
inventor of the theory of the Humoralists, which was 
so generally adopted in the schools of medicine, and 
which, for so long a period, entirely engrossed their at¬ 
tention. The four elements, the four humours, and 
the four qualities, connected in all the variety of com¬ 
binations, presented a specious appearance of method 
and arrangement, which took such firm possession of 
the mind as to preclude all inquiry into the validity of 
the foundation, and to present us with one of the most 
remarkable examples of the complete prostration of 
the understanding in a physical science, where facts 


Douglas, Bibliog. p. 18-22. 



OR MEDICAL HISTORY 263 

were daily obtruding themselves upon our observation, 
but were either unnoticed or totally disregarded. 

The practice of Galen in its general character ap¬ 
pears to have been similar to his pathology, and, indeed, 
to have been strictly deduced from it. His indications 
were in exact conformity to his theory, and the opera¬ 
tion of medicines was reduced to their power of cor¬ 
recting the morbid states of the fluids, as depending 
upon their four primary qualities or the various modi¬ 
fications of them. Many parts of his writings prove 
that he was a diligent observer of the phenomena of 
disease, and he possessed an acuteness of mind which 
well adapted him for seizing the most prominent fea¬ 
tures of a case, and tracing out the origin of the morbid 
affection. But his predilection for theory too frequently 
warped and biassed his judgment, so that he appears 
more anxious to reconcile his practice to his hypothesis 
than to his facts, and bestows much more labour on 
subtle and refined reasoning, than on the investigation 
of morbid actions, or the generalization of his actual 
experience. 

The number of treatises which Galen left behind him 
is very considerable, amounting to nearly two hundred 
separate works, embracing every department of medical 
science. His style is generally elegant, but diffuse, and, 
as may be imagined from the multiplicity of his works, 
he frequently repeats and copies from himself. Con¬ 
sidered under the two classes of anatomy and physi- 
ology, and of pathology and practice, the following 
may, perhaps, be selected as the most valuable, both 
with respect to the absolute addition which they made 
to the previous stock of knowledge, and as to the rea¬ 
soning employed in them. Under the first head we may 
select the treatise “On the Use of the Parts of the 
Body,” in seventeen books, in which he describes the 
structure of the different organs, and assigns to each of 
them its use. This is a work of great anatomical re¬ 
search and physiological ingenuity, which contains 
many facts that were probably the result of his own 


264 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

investigation, and exhibits a very favourable specimen 
of his reasoning powers, when not too much under the 
influence of preconceived hypothesis. The same kind 
of merit, although less in degree, may be assigned to 
the treatise “On the Motion of the Muscles/’ and also 
to that “On the Formation of the Foetus,” making due 
allowance for the greater difficulty and obscurity of the 
subject. 

Among the works of the second class the treatise 
“On Temperaments” has been greatly and justly cele¬ 
brated, as well as that “On the Seat of Disease,” while 
that “On the Variety of the Pulse” affords a happy 
illustration of his peculiar turn of mind, of his acute¬ 
ness and originality, and, at the same time, of his de¬ 
voted attachment to hypothesis. The two works, “On 
the Differences and the Causes of Diseases,” and “The 
Method of Cure,” are more especially interesting, as 
containing the most detailed view of his peculiar doc¬ 
trines of the humoral pathology, of the indications of 
which he laid down, and the methods which he adopted 
for their accomplishment. These two latter works ex¬ 
hibit a very complete view of the practice of Galen and 
of that of his contemporaries, and enable us to form a 
correct opinion of the state of the science when he en¬ 
tered upon the study of it, and of the additions which 
he made to it. To attempt an analysis of the works 
themselves, or of the details of Galen’s practice, would 
carry me far beyond the limits of this treatise, and in¬ 
deed, it would be principally as a question of literary 
curiosity that such an examination could be sustained. 
Their general character may be understood from what 
has been stated above, and I fully coincide in the re¬ 
mark of a learned and impartial critic, the late Dr. 
Aikin, who, after giving full credit to Galen for talent 
and acquirements, thus concludes:—“His own mass 
and modern improvements have now in great measure 
consigned his writings to neglect, but his fame can only 
perish with the science itself.” The remark which 
was formerly made with respect to Hippocrates applies 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


265 


equally to Galen, that the great superiority which he 
acquired over his contemporaries appeared to repress 
all attempts at further improvement.* 


CHAPTER VI. 


An account of the successors of Galen—Decline of medical 
science—Sextus Empiricus—Oribasius—Aetius—Alexander 
Trallianus—Paulus Eginetus—Account of the state of 
Medicine among the Arabians—Conquest of the Arabians 
—Their patronage of science—Invention, of Chymistry— 
Ahrun — Serapion — Alkhendi—Rhazes—Ali-Abbas—Avi¬ 
cenna—Mesue—Albucasis—Avenzoar—Averroes—Estimate 
of the merits of the Arabic school. 


In investigating the state of medicine during the 
middle ages, it is apparent that mankind seemed to be 
satisfied with the progress which had been made in the 
science, or were conscious of their inability to surpass 
the limits which had been assigned to it; and the re¬ 
sult was, that for some time after the death of Galen we 
have few illustrious names to celebrate, and no dis¬ 
coveries to record. Literature in general was now, 
indeed, rapidly declining, and various causes, both 
moral and political, were coming into operation, which 
suspended the progress of science and learning for 
many centuries, and produced what are justly and em¬ 
phatically denominated the dark ages. Into these 
causes it is not our business to inquire; it may be suf¬ 
ficient to remark that they were of so universal a nature 
as to operate on the human mind generally, and there¬ 
fore to affect every intellectual pursuit. Medicine 


* Conring, Introd cap. 3. §. 16; cap. 4. §. 17* e t alibi. LeClerC, 
par. iii. liv. iii. ch. 1-8, contains a very ample account of all that re¬ 
gards the writings and opinions of Galen. At this period we lose the 
further aid of this candid and judicious histprian of medicine. Bar- 
chusen, diss. no. 16. Nouv. Diet. Hist. “Galien.’ Haller, Bib. Med. 
lib. i. §. 80, 1. Lauth, liv. v. par. 1. Sprengel, sect. 5. ch. 6. Acker- 
mann, cap. 21. 2. Blumenbach, Introd. sect. 75. Goulin, Encyc. Meth. 
Medecine. ‘ Galien.” Renauldin, Biog. Univ. ‘ Galien. 




266 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

among others, felt their paralyzing influence, although, 
from certain incidental circumstances to be hereafter 
noticed, it was not allowed to remain so completely 
stationary as most of the other branches of science. 

About the period when Galen flourished, the Roman 
empire began to exhibit very decided symptoms of that 
decline, which, proceeding with more or less rapidity, 
was never altogether suspended, until it terminated in 
complete destruction. Even in the most splendid state 
of Rome, the cultivation of science was very limited, 
and we have had occasion to remark that almost all the 
physicians who acquired any considerable degree of 
celebrity were natives of Greece or Asia, and wrote in 
the Greek language. This was the case with Galen 
himself and with the few individuals who succeeded 
him, whose names are of sufficient importance to be 
introduced into this sketch. The medical writers of the 
third and fourth centuries have been characterized by 
Sprengel as “frigid compilers, or blind empirics, or 
feeble imitators of the physician of Pergamus.”f 

The only exception to this remark is Sextus Em¬ 
piricus, who appears to have been a contemporary of 
Galen, and probably derived his appellation from the 
sect to which he attached himself, as there are some 
treatises of his still extant, in which he attacks the 
principles of the Dogmatists with considerable acute¬ 
ness. We may conclude from his works that he was a 
man of learning and talents, well versed in the princi¬ 
ples of the philosophers, and familiar with all the 
branches of literature and science which were culti¬ 
vated in his time.* * He is, however, the last medical 
writer to whom the character of Sprengel does not 
strictly apply. Oribasius, who lived in the fourth 
century, Aetius in the fifth, Alexander Trallianus in 
the sixth, and his contemporary Paulus of JEgina, 
were all zealous Galenists, who professed to do little 
more than to illustrate or comment on the works of 


t T. ii. p. 170. 

* Enfield, v. ii. p. 136. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


267 


their great master. Their writings are principally 
compilations from their predecessors; they are, how¬ 
ever, occasionally curious from the incidental facts 
which they contain, and by furnishing us with ex¬ 
tracts or abstracts of treatises which are no longer 
extant; but this constitutes almost their sole value. 
The only additions to the practice of medicine which 
they afford are an account of certain surgical opera¬ 
tions, which is given us by Aetius, and a treatise by 
Paulus on midwifery, which is more complete than any 
that had previously appeared, and was long held in 
high estimation. But even these, which form but a 
small portion of the whole of their works, are con¬ 
nected with so much credulity and superstition, as to 
indicate at least the most degraded state of the 
science, if not the defective judgment of the writer. 
Aetius expressly recommended the use of magical 
arts and incantations, and that, not, as has sometimes 
been done in a more enlightened age, from a know¬ 
ledge of the effect they might produce on the imagina¬ 
tion of the patient, but apparently from his own opin¬ 
ion of their physical operation on the system.f It 
must, however, be admitted that both in Alexander 
Trallianus and in Paulus we meet with various de¬ 
scriptions of disease, which indicate that they pos¬ 
sessed the talent of accurate observation; and we may 
conclude that, although in what respects opinions they 
were the devoted followers of Galen, yet in the sim¬ 
ple detail of facts their authority may be relied upon 
with considerable confidence.^ 

With the death of Paulus, which took place about 
the middle of the seventh century, we may date the 
termination of the Greek school of medicine, for after 
his time we have no work written in this language 
which is possessed of any degree of merit. Those 
which occasionally appeared were mere servile tran¬ 
scripts of Galen and his disciples, or compilations 

t Conring, cap. 3. sect. 18-20. Sprengel, sect. 6. ch. 1-3. 

$ Freind, Hist. Med. p. 398 et seq. and p. 420 et seq. Bloy, “Paul 
d’Egine.” Haller, Bib. Med. t. i. o. 3 “-i 5 ‘ 



268 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


formed without judgment or discernment, devoid of 
original observation, or even of any attempt at general¬ 
ization or arrangement. In this degraded state was 
the science of medicine reduced in the former seats of 
learning, when a new school arose in a different 
quarter of the world, which will require our attention, 
from the actual additions which it made to our knowl¬ 
edge, as well as from the mode of its origin and the 
nature of its connection with the Grecian and Roman 
schools. 

The city of Alexandria still retained its reputation 
as the great school of medicine, partly resting its fame 
on the excellence of its former professors, and in some 
measure depending on the value of its extensive library 
and other institutions favourable to the cultivation of 
science, the forms of which at least were still pre¬ 
served. But even these feeble remains were destroyed 
by the conquest of the Arabians in the seventh cen¬ 
tury, who, in the genuine spirit of blind bigotry, ap¬ 
peared to be actuated by the barbarous desire of totally 
eradicating science from the face of the earth. The 
catastrophe which befell the Alexandrian library is too 
well known to be repeated in this place,§ a calamity, 
the full extent of which can scarcely be appreciated by 
one who is in the habit of regarding literature only as 
it exists in modern times, when books of all descrip¬ 
tions are multiplied to an excessive degree, and when 
the loss occasioned by the most splendid collection 
would be nearly confined to a single nation or com¬ 
munity. It appears, however, that notwithstanding 
the brutal violence of the Saracen invaders, some books 
escaped from the general wreck of literature and 
science, and that there were not wanting some indi¬ 
viduals who were capable of estimating their value. 
Among these relics were the writings of Galen, and 
we are informed that at an early period of the Sara- 

§ I have adopted the generally received account of this transaction: 
but the learned reader need not be informed, that a considerable, and 
perhaps not an unreasonable degree of doubt attaches to it. Gibbon, 
c. si. v. 9. p. 392-5. 



OF MEDIC AE HISTORY 


269 


cenic empire they began to be held in very high es¬ 
timation; they were translated into the Arabic lan¬ 
guage, were commented upon and elucidated in various 
ways, and soon acquired a degree of celebrity scarcely 
short of what they had previously enjoyed among the 
Greeks themselves. The Arabians were also in posses¬ 
sion of the works of Hippocrates, but the simplicity of 
this author was less adapted to their taste than were 
the metaphysical refinements and elaborate arrange¬ 
ments of Galen, so that, while the latter was regarded 
with a respect amounting almost to veneration, the 
former was little read or estimated. 

After the immediate successors of Mahomet had 
completed their conquest of a considerable part of the 
civilized world, they rested from their warlike 
triumphs, and seemed disposed to add to the splendour 
of their empire by the cultivation of the arts of peace. 
The patronage of literature was an express object of 
many of their rulers, and even the works of the Greek 
philosophers were translated and studied with much 
assiduity.* But the spirit of Mohammedanism was 
decidedly averse to intellectual improvement, and we 
accordingly find that no additions were made to gen¬ 
eral science, and that very little was accomplished even 
in the collection of facts and observations. To this 
remark, however, medicine forms an exception; for al¬ 
though the Arabian physicians adopted implicitly all 
the theories and speculations of Galen, and seldom 
ventured in the smallest degree to deviate from his 
practice, we are indebted to them for the description of 
some diseases which either made their first appearance 
about this time, or had not been before specifically 
noticed.f 

I must mention in this place a remarkable occur¬ 
rence in the history of science, and one which indirectly 

* The Arabians are said to have commenced the study of literature 
and science in the 108th year of the Hegirah, under the Caliph Al- 
mamoun; Ockley’s Hist, of the Saracens, pref. p. xi. 

t For an account of the Arabian school of medicine generally, the 
reader is referred to Freind, who treats upon everything connected with 
it in the most ample manner. See also Barchusen, diss. 17. §. 12 et 
seq. Sprengel, sect. 6. ch. 5. Cabanis, §. 6. 



A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


270 

produced a very important effect upon the subject of 
this dissertation,—the invention of chymistry. The 
origin of chymistry, like that of all other sciences, is 
obscure and uncertain. Traces of what may be called 
chymical operations are to be found even among the 
Jews and Egyptians, but it is generally admitted that 
they are to be regarded as incidental occurrences, de¬ 
pending upon accidental observations, pursued no 
further than the object immediately in view, and not 
considered, even by those who practised them, as more 
than mere insulated facts, leading to no general princi¬ 
ples nor to any further investigations. The practice 
of chymistry as a distinct pursuit seems to have origin¬ 
ated with the Arabians, and by them was made subser¬ 
vient to the purposes of medicine.^ It is not my busi¬ 
ness to inquire into the mode in which this art took its 
first rise, or to trace its subsequent progress, except so 
far as may be connected with my present subject; and 
this will be the most conveniently accomplished by giv¬ 
ing in succession a brief account of the most distin¬ 
guished writers who belonged to the Arabian school 
of medicine. 

The earliest Arabian writer on medicine, of whom 
we have any certain account, would appear to be Ah- 
run, who was a priest at Alexandria. He published a 
treatise entitled “Pandectsit has not come down to 
us, but it deserves to be noticed, as it is said to have 
contained the first description of the small-pox. He 
was contemporary with Paulus, and from the account 
of his works which has been transmitted to us by 
Rhazes, we may conclude that the science of medicine 
was cultivated at that time with at least as much suc¬ 
cess among the Arabians as among the Greeks. Dur¬ 
ing the next three centuries, although we meet with 
the names of many individuals who acquired a certain 
degree of temporary celebrity, we have none who 
rendered themselves so far pre-eminent as to entitle 
them to particular notice in this brief sketch. The 


XFrexnd, Hist. Med. pars 2. sub init. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 246*266. 



4 


OF MEDICAIv HISTORY 27 1 

first author of whom it will be necessary to give any 
distinct account is Serapion: he lived in the ninth cen¬ 
tury, and is said to have been a native of Damascus. 
His treatise, entitled, according to the fancy of the 
translators, “Aggregator,” “Breviarium,” or “Thera- 
peutica Methodus,” was written originally in Syriac; 
its professed object was to give a complete system of 
the Greek medicine, and to incorporate with it the 
principles and practice of the Arabians. Like those of 
the rest of his countrymen, the greatest part of Serap- 
ion’s work is taken from those of his predecessors, and 
particularly from Galen; but it contains some few 
novelties with respect both to doctrine and to practice, 
and in one point, the preparation and composition of 
medicines, as well as in the articles employed, we may 
notice a decided improvement.* 

At the same time with Serapion lived Alkhendi, a 
multifarious writer, who obtained a very high degree 
of celebrity among his contemporaries, perhaps more 
from the variety of his acquirements than from the 
excellence he attained in any particular department. 
He is said to have assiduously cultivated mathematics, 
and the various branches of natural philosophy, as 
well as medicine; and among other subjects to which 
he particularly directed his attention, we find astrology 
expressly enumerated. In relation to his varied at¬ 
tainments, he was styled the subtle philosopher, the 
learned physician, and the Greek astrologer. As an 
example, both of the spirit of the age and of the genius 
of the individual, we may remark that Alkhendi ap¬ 
plied the rules of geometrical proportion and of musi¬ 
cal harmony to regulate the doses of medicines, and to 
explain the mode of their operation—a mistaken ap¬ 
plication of science, which, however gross it may now 
appear, we must reflect was not entirely exploded until 
long after the revival of letters.f 

* Haller, Bib. Bot. t. i. p. 183-9. For an account of the earlier 
writers of the Arabian school, see Freind, pars. 2. sub init. 

t See particularly a paper by Balguy, on the mode of ascertaining 
the doses of vomiting and purging medicines, in Edin. Med. Ess. v. 
iv. p. 33, published in 1737, under the superintendence of some of the 
first men of science in the university. 



272 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

We now come to one of the most illustrious of the 
Arabian school, Rhazes. He was born at Irak in 
Persia in the ninth century; he is described as a per¬ 
son of various acquirements, as being well versed in 
general science, and, as his writings demonstrate, of 
unwearied industry. There is some reason to doubt 
whether the principal work which has been transmitted 
to us under his name, entitled “Continens,” is precisely 
in the form in which it was left by its author; but 
there appears to be sufficient proof of its general au¬ 
thenticity to enable us to deduce from it, as well as 
from his other acknowledged works, an ample and 
correct view of the opinions and practice both of 
Rhazes himself and of his contemporaries. For the 
most part, the writings of Rhazes are deficient in 
method and arrangement, and they consist principally 
of abstracts and comments on Galen and the Greek 
physicians; but they also contain observations that ap¬ 
pear to be original, and we even meet with the descrip¬ 
tion of some diseases which were either new, or, at 
least, were not noticed by the ancients. Rhazes gives 
us a correct and elaborate description of the small-pox 
and measles, detailing the theory which was formed of 
their nature and origin by the Arabians, and the treat¬ 
ment which they employed. The most curious and 
original work of Rhazes is his “Aphorisms,” in one 
part of which he professedly gives the result of his 
own observation and experience. But even this treat¬ 
ise, which was long regarded as of the highest author¬ 
ity in the schools of medicine, contains little that is 
really new and valuable; and when we compare it with 
its celebrated prototype, we cannot but be impressed 
with the very small advance which had been made in 
the science and practice of medicine during a space of 
nearly thirteen centuries. The most important addi¬ 
tions which Rhazes made were, perhaps, rather in sur¬ 
gery and in pharmacy than in medicine, strictly so 
called; and it is worthy of notice that, in the latter de¬ 
partment, we have some of the earliest indications of 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 273 

the free employment of what were styled chymical 
remedies.^ 

A short time after Rhazes lived Ali-Abbas, a writer 
of considerable celebrity, who obtained the appellation 
of the magician. His principal work, entitled “Opus 
Regium, ,, professes to contain a complete view of the 
state of medicine in all its branches; it consists chiefly 
of abstracts of the doctrines and opinions of the Greek 
physicians, but along with these are contained some 
original observations. At the time of its publication 
it was very highly estimated, and perhaps may be con¬ 
sidered as possessing more real value than most of the 
works that proceeded from the Arabian school.§ 

The fame of Ali-Abbas was, however, almost en¬ 
tirely eclipsed by that of Avicenna, || who flourished 
about a century later, and who rose to the highest 
pitch of celebrity, so as to be regarded by his country¬ 
men as superior to Rhazes, or even to Galen himself. 
Avicenna was born at Bochara, in the year 980, and 
was carefully educated in all the learnings of the 
times, consisting principally of the Aristotelian logic 
and dialectics, with the imperfect mathematical and 
physical science, that was then taught in the schools of 
Bagdat. He appears to have been possessed of an 
ardent desire for acquiring knowledge, and of great 
industry, but united to a portion of fanaticism, indica¬ 
tive of a defective judgment, and fostered by the spirit 
of the age, which induced him to conceive himself 
under the influence of supernatural revelation. After 
a foundation of general science, he entered upon the 
study of medicine, which he prosecuted with the same 
diligence, and with the same spirit of enthusiasm. 
His reputation became so high, that he was early in¬ 
troduced to the court, and for some years was without 


t Freind, p. 483-91. Haller, Bib. Med. Prac., lib. ii. §. 135. Eloy, 
in loco. Lauth, p. 280-2. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 285-301. 

§ Freind, p. 481. Haller, Bib. Med. lib. ii. §. 137. t. i. p. 380. 
Sprengel, t. ii. p. 301-5. 

Ii The actual name of this individual is said to have been Al-Hussain- 
Abou-Ali-Ben-Abdallah-Ebn-Sina. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 305. In most 
cases it appears that the names by which the Arabians are generally 
known in Europe were not their real names. 


18 



274 A BiOGRAPHlCAIv CYCLOPEDIA 

a rival in his profession. His death, which took place 
in the fifty-sixth year, was probably hastened by some 
political intrigues, in which he unfortunately became 
entangled. 

The works which Avicenna left behind him are 
numerous, and embrace both general science and medi¬ 
cine. The former long maintained a high character 
for extent of information and profundity of learning, 
and, according to the standard of the age, were proba¬ 
bly entitled to this commendation. But his fame, both 
with his contemporaries and with posterity, principally 
rests upon his great medical work, entitled “Canon 
Medicinae,” which may be regarded as a kind of en¬ 
cyclopedia of all that was then known of medicine, and 
of the sciences connected with it, anatomy, surgery, 
therapeutics, and botany. Its celebrity was so great as 
to have acquired for its author the title of prince of 
physicians; for some centuries it was the received text¬ 
book in most of the medical schools, both of the Ara¬ 
bians and the Europeans; until the revival of letters it 
superseded, in a great measure, the works even of 
Galen; it produced scarcely less numerous commen¬ 
taries and epitomes, and had not entirely lost its au¬ 
thority two centuries ago Yet the matured judgment 
of one of the most learned and candid of the modern 
critics has not hesitated to bestow upon this so-much- 
vaunted production the character of an ill-digested and 
servile compilation, containing little that is new, either 
in the way of observation or of practice. Indeed, the 
sole aim of Avicenna seems to have been to collect mat¬ 
ter from all quarters, without paying any regard to its 
value, or to the mode in which it was arranged. He 
was a devoted admirer of Aristotle and Galen, and 
seemed to imagine that the ultimate object, either of 
the philosopher or the physician, consisted in being 
intimately acquainted with their writings, and in de¬ 
fending them against all objections. Upon the whole, 
after making every allowance for the period in which 
he lived, it seems difficult to account for the very great 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


275 


credit which he acquired, not only during his lifetime, 
but which was attached to his writings after his death; 
a credit so much greater than what they merit, either 
from the importance of the information which they 
contain, or the mode in which it is conveyed.* 

There are two Arabian writers of the name of 
Mesue, whose celebrity entitles them to a brief notice 
in this place, although considerable uncertainty at¬ 
taches both to their individual history and to their 
works. The elder of them is said to have lived in the 
eighth, and the younger in the tenth century; and they 
are both represented as being Christians of the Nestor- 
ian sect, but to have exercised their profession at Bag- 
dat. The elder Mesue is principally remarkable as 
having been among the first who made correct transla¬ 
tions of the Greek physicians, and especially of Hippoc¬ 
rates and Galen, into Arabic; for although he appears 
to have composed many original works, we do not find 
that they rose into any high repute even among his 
contemporaries. To the younger Mesue is usually 
ascribed a treatise on materia medica and pharmacy, 
which for a long time was in great estimation, and was 
republished and commented upon even as late as the 
sixteenth century; it probably contained a full view of 
the state of the science when he wrote, and is interest¬ 
ing, as it indicates the introduction of several new 
remedies into medicine; but in other respects it is to be 
regarded merely as a literary curiosity.f 

The last of the Arabians who acquired any consid¬ 
erable distinction as a writer on medical subjects is 
Albucasis. So little is known of his personal history, 
that both his birth and the country in which he lived 
have been the subject of controversy, and appear to be 
entirely conjectural. His principal works are on sur¬ 
gery; and the reputation which he acquired in this 

* Freind, lib. ii. p. 491-2. Haller, Bib. Med. lib. ii. §. 139. Floy . 
in loco. Lauth, p. 282-5. Enfield, v. ii. p. 222, 3. Sprengel, t. ii. p*. 
305-22. Hutton’s Math. Diet., in loco. Goulin, Enc. Meth. Medecine, 
“Avicenne." “Avicenne," in Biog. Univ. 

+ Freind, p. 481, 2. Haller, Bibl. Med. Prac. lib. ii. §. 126. Eloy, 
in loco. Enfield, v. ii. p. 231. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 325. 



276 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

department is almost as great as that of Avicenna in 
medicine. He seems to have been a man of learning 
and talents, to have made himself master of the writ¬ 
ings and practices of his predecessors, and to have im¬ 
proved upon them. The description which he has left 
of his operations shows him to have possessed a degree 
of boldness and dexterity which could only exist in one 
who was well acquainted with his art, and had been 
habituated to the practice of it. His practice was 
what we should now consider as unnecessarily severe, 
making much more use of the knife and of the actual 
cautery than is done in modern times, and in all re¬ 
spects inflicting both more pain and more permanent 
injury on his patients. The works of Albucasis appear, 
however, to have afforded by far the most complete 
view of the practice of surgery which then existed; 
and from this circumstance, as well as from their real 
merit, they were for many ages considered as stand¬ 
ard performances, and employed as the text-book in 
various schools and colleges.* 

It remains for us to give an account of two individ¬ 
uals, who, although natives of Spain, and residing 
principally in that country, were of Saracenic origin, 
and wrote in the Arabic language—Avenzoar and 
Averroes. Avenzoar was born at Seville, in the end 
of the eleventh century, and is said to have lived to the 
unusual length of one hundred and thirty-five years; 
but probably some error may have crept into this state¬ 
ment, in consequence of both his father and his son 
having been, like himself, engaged in the practice of 
medicine. His principal work, entitled “Thaissyr,”f 
which consists of a general compendium of medical 
practice, displays more originality and discrimination 
than the writings of any of the native Arabians; so 
that, although he was professedly a disciple of Galen, 
he does not hesitate, on certain occasions, to shake off 

* Freind, p. 506-524. Haller, lib. ii. §. 148. Eloy, in loco. Lauth, 
p. 285, 6. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 327-32. 

t Freind designates the Thaissyr as “liber qui omnia victus et 
medicinae praecepta in plerisque morbis contineret:” p. 493. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 277 

his authority when his opinions* or practice were not 
sanctioned by his own experience. We may collect, 
from certain parts of his works, that he practised both 
surgery and pharmacy, as well as medicine, properly 
so called; and we have many valuable observations on 
each of these departments. Upon the whole, we may 
consider Avenzoar as respectable both from his gen¬ 
eral character and his professional skill, and entitled to 
our regard as one of the improvers of his art.$ 

Besides the reputation which Avenzoar derived from 
his own merits, he was perhaps still more known 
among his countrymen as being the preceptor of the 
celebrated Averroes. Averroes was a native of Cor- 
duba, and flourished in the twelfth century; he was of 
illustrious birth, and highly educated in all the 
branches both of literature and of science which were 
then taught in the Saracenic colleges of Spain. From 
certain political causes he was, in the early part of his 
life, the subject of religious persecution; but he suc¬ 
ceeded in repelling the'attacks that were made upon 
his faith, and was finally reinstated in all his former 
honours and in the public estimation. These circum¬ 
stances, coinciding probably with the peculiar tempera¬ 
ment of his mind, gave to his character a degree of 
ascetic gloom and austerity; but he appears to have 
been a man of distinguished worth and of superior 
abilities. Averroes’s professional occupations were 
principally in a civil capacity; he is therefore to be re¬ 
garded, not as a practitioner, but as a scholar, who 
pursued the study of medicine as a branch of physical 
science. But such was his ardour in the pursuit of 
general knowledge, and the fondness which he mani¬ 
fested for this particular department, that he made 
himself intimately acquainted with it in all its details; 
and in his great work entitled “The Universal,” he 
shows that he was not deficient in any part of the 
science which could be acquired by the mere study of 

t Freind, p. 492-503. Haller, lib. ii. §. 141. Eloy, in loco. Sprengel, 
t. ii. p. 332 - 7 - 



278 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

books. As a philosopher, he was a zealous and obse¬ 
quious follower of the opinions of Aristotle, and as a 
physician, of those of Galen; he published many com¬ 
ments on both of them, which acquired the highest de¬ 
gree of reputation, and for many ages were considered 
as standard performances. Yet there is reason to 
suppose that he was ignorant of the Greek language, 
and, like his contemporaries, became acquainted with 
Aristotle and Galen only through the medium of 
Arabic translations. The great estimation in which 
the works of Averroes were held is proved by the num¬ 
ber of editions of them which were published from 
time to time, one of which appeared at Venice so late 
as the commencement of the seventeenth century. 
With respect to his medical writings, as they do not 
profess to be the result of original observation, we can¬ 
not be surprised that their reputation is no longer sup¬ 
ported. They are, indeed, entirely neglected; and it 
may be affirmed that, notwithstanding the celebrity 
which they once enjoyed, and which they so long main¬ 
tained, they have not left a single permanent addition 
to the science.* 

With Averroes terminated the Arabic or Saracenic 
school of medicine; after his time we have no writer 
whose name is sufficiently distinguished to deserve 
particular mention: even the study of the ancients be¬ 
gan to be neglected, while no original observations 
were made, and no novel opinions or speculations were 
framed which might tend to exercise the mind or dis¬ 
sipate the darkness which now covered all parts of the 
world. 

If we inquire into the causes of the great celebrity of 
the Arabian school of medicine, we shall be led to the 
conclusion that they were rather incidental and facti¬ 
tious, than derived from its absolute merits. It has been 
justly observed, that a considerable portion of this ce¬ 
lebrity must be ascribed to the comparative condition of 

* Freind, p. 503-6. Bayle’s Diet., in loco. Moreri’s Diet., in loco. 
Haller, lib. ii. §. 142. Eloy, in loco. Nouveau Diet. Hist., in loco. 

Enfield, t. ii. p. 226-231. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 337-41. 



OF MEDICAIy HISTORY 279 

the neighbouring countries. From the eighth to the 
twelfth century was, perhaps, the period in which 
Europe was in the state of the most complete barbar¬ 
ism and superstition. The only remains of a taste for 
literature and science, or for the fine arts, were found 
among the Moors and Arabs; and it was from this 
scource, by the intervention of the crusaders, and the 
intercourse which was thus eflfected between the Asia¬ 
tics and the Europeans, that the philosophical and 
medical writings of the Greeks were first made known 
to the inhabitants of Italy and of France. And even 
after their introduction into Europe, it appears that 
they were for some time read only in Arabic transla¬ 
tions, or in Latin versions made from these transla¬ 
tions ; so that it was not until a considerably later per¬ 
iod that they were perused in their native language. 
Indeed, so completely was the study of the Greek 
tongue suspended during the dark ages, that it may be 
doubted whether the writings of the ancient physi¬ 
cians might not have been entirely lost to posterity, 
had they not been preserved in these translations. 

There are, however, two points in which the Ara¬ 
bians conferred a real obligation upon their successors, 
—the introduction of various new articles into the 
materia medica, and the original description of certain 
diseases. The additions which the Arabians made to 
pharmacy consisted partly in the vegetable products 
of the eastern or southern countries of Asia, which 
were only imperfectly known to the Greeks, and with 
which they had no intercourse. Among other sub¬ 
stances we may enumerate rhubarb, tamarinds, cassia, 
manna, senna, camphor, various gums and resins, and 
a number of aromatics, which were brought from Per¬ 
sia, India, or the Oriental Isles. But a still more im¬ 
portant addition which they made to the pharmacopoeia 
consisted in what were styled chymical remedies, such 
as were produced by some chymical process, in oppo¬ 
sition to those substances that were used nearly in 
their natural state. With respect to the origin of 


28 o 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


pharmaceutical chymistry, it may be sufficient to ob¬ 
serve, that a rude species of chymical manipulation ap¬ 
pears to have been practised in Arabia in the fifth cen¬ 
tury, that distillation was performed, and that the 
metals were subjected to various processes, by which 
some of their oxides and salts were produced. The 
immediate object of these processes was the transmu¬ 
tation of the metals; an operation which, for many 
centuries, formed a main subject of attention to almost 
all the individuals who were considered as cultivators 
of natural philosophy. 

With respect to the second subject alluded to above, 
the description of new diseases, it is well known that, 
from causes which are now altogether inexplicable, 
diseases of the most marked and distinct nature, which 
are the least liable to be mistaken or confounded with 
other affections, and which, had they existed, are too 
violent to have been overlooked, are not mentioned by 
the Greek and Roman physicians, and are described 
for the first time by the Arabians. Of these the two 
most remarkable are the small-pox and the measles. 
There is some reason to suppose that the small-pox 
had been known in China, and the more remote parts 
of India, at a much earlier period; but it is generally 
admitted that it was first recognized in the western 
part of Asia, at the siege of Mecca, about the middle 
of the sixth century, when it raged with great violence 
in the army of the besiegers. We have remarked 
above, that the disease was alluded to by Ahrun shortly 
after its appearance, but it was Rhazes to whom we are 
indebted for the first clear and distinct account of its 
symptoms and treatment. There is no subject in the 
whole range of medical science of more difficult solu¬ 
tion than that which respects the origin of diseases, 
especially such as, when produced, are propagated 
solely by contagion. The full discussion of this sub¬ 
ject would, however, carry me far beyond the limits 
of this treatise; it is only alluded to in this place as an 


OF MEDICAE HISTORY 281 

historical fact, in connection with the writings of the 
Arabians.* 

We are indebted to them for the transmission of the 
works of the ancient Greek physicians, to which they 
made certain additions of insulated facts with respect 
to the description of diseases; but, with respect to the 
general principles of therapeutics, the additions, if 
any, are few and imperfect. In anatomy they made no 
advances, and we have reason to suppose that the ex¬ 
amination of bodies, either in a sound or morbid state, 
was scarcely practised by them. Medical theory was 
much attended to, but their theories consisted more in 
subtle refinements, formed upon the Aristotelian 
model, than in the study of pathology, or an accurate 
discrimination of the phenomena of disease. Some 
little advance appears to have been made in surgery by 
Albucasis, but he is the only individual who seems to 
have aimed at improving this branch of the profes¬ 
sion; and it may be doubted whether the practice of 
surgery was not, upon the whole, in a retrograde state 
during the period of which we are now treating. It 
is in the department of pharmacy alone that they made 
any additions of real value; and although in this case 
it may be attributed more to accidental circumstances 
than to any enlightened spirit of improvement, yet it 
is incumbent upon us to acknowledge the obligation, 
which was both extensive and permanent.! 


* On the origin of the small-pox, see Freind, p. 524*95 Mead’s Dis¬ 
course on Small-pox and Measles, ch. i.; Thompson’s Inquiry into the 
Origin of Small-pox; Plouquet, Literatura Digest, “Variola, Antiquitas, 
Historia,” in loco; ample references may be found in this learned and 
laborious compilation on all analogous topics, but we may regret that 
the writer appears to have aimed rather at multiplying his authorities 
than estimating their value. 

t We are indebted to Freind for a candid and judicious account of 
the Arabian medical school, p. 529-33. Haller’s second book of his 
Bibl. Med. Prac. is devoted to the same subject. See also Robertson’s 
Charles V. vol. i. note 28. Berington’s Middle Ages, App. No. 2. 
Gibbon’s History, vol. x. ch. lii. Ackermann, cap. xxvii-xxix. Oelsner, 
Des Effets de la Religion de Mahommed, p. 196-9: this author is per¬ 
haps too much disposed to exalt the merits of the Arabian school. Kuhn, 
Bib. Med. sec. 3, of what he styles “Fontes Medicinse,” is entitled 
“Scriptores Medici inter Arabes praecipui,” p. 180-6. Portal, Hist. 
Anat. ch. ix. “Des Anatomistes et des Chirurgiens Arabes/' t. i. p. 
143 et seq. Blumenbach, Introd. sect. 6. “Arabes.” 



282 


A BIOGRAPHICAL/ CYCLOPEDIA 


CHAPTER VII. 

State of Medicine in Europe after the Extinction of the 
Arabian School—Medical Schools of Monte-Cassino and 
Salerno—Medicina Salernitana—Constantinus Africanus— 
Actuarius—Rise of the Study of Anatomy—Mondini—Gil¬ 
bert— Effect of the Crusades, of the Reformation, and of 
the Invention of Printing, on the Literature of Europe— 
On Medical Science—Alchymists—Establishment of Uni¬ 
versities—Linacre—Chymical Physicians—Paracelsus—Ap¬ 
pearance of New Diseases. 

During the flourishing period of the Saracenic 
school of medicine, which may be considered as ex¬ 
tending from the eighth to the twelfth century, the 
science remained nearly stationary, or was even retro¬ 
grade among the successors of the Greeks and Ro¬ 
mans. We have scarcely a single name of sufficient im¬ 
portance to arrest our attention, and we have no im¬ 
provements to record, either in theory or in practice. 
The only attempts that were made in Greece or in 
Italy during this period, which deserve to be noticed, 
are connected with the Neapolitan schools of Monte- 
Cassino and of Salerno, which acquired some degree 
of reputation in the eleventh century. It was at this 
period that the physicians attached to the school of 
Salerno wrote the verses on dietetic medicine, entitled 
‘‘Medicina Salernitana,” a work which, as afterward 
published with the commentary of Arnoldus de Villa- 
nova, acquired considerable celebrity, and may be re¬ 
garded as a valuable document, by its affording, in a 
small compass, a correct idea of the state of Italian 
medicine at that early period.* 

In connection with this subject we may notice Con¬ 
stantinus Africanus, who is supposed to have flour- 

* Haller ascribes the Latin verses of the Medicina Salernitana to 
John of Milan; he remarks, that of this work there had been published 
“editiones fere innumerabiles;” Bib. Med. lib. iii. sec. 140. See also 
Eloy, t. ii. p. 599. Ackermann, sec. 422. and Blumenbach, sec. 114. ’ 



OF MEDICAL, HISTORY 


283 


ished about the end of the eleventh century. He was, as 
his name imports, an African; he possessed an ardent 
desire to obtain knowledge, studied in the schools of 
Bagdat, and is said to have travelled even into India. 
At his return to his native country he was regarded as 
a sorcerer, and was compelled, in order to save his 
life, to take refuge in Italy, where he was finally at¬ 
tached to the university of Monte-Cassino. He prin¬ 
cipally employed himself in translating the works of 
the Greek and Latin physicians into Arabic, which was 
at that time the general language of science. His 
translations are, however, said to be incorrect, and his 
style barbarous; while his works, which are not pro¬ 
fessed translations, appear to be composed of tran¬ 
scripts from other authors, without any particular 
merit, either of selection or of arrangement.! 

We must mention in this place a writer whose real 
name has not been transmitted to us, commonly called 
Actuarius, from the office which he bore in the court 
of Constantinople.^ He is supposed to have lived in 
the twelfth century. The works which he left are 
numerous, and, although consisting principally of ex¬ 
tracts from Galen and the Arabian physicians, with 
whose writings he appears to have been familar, are 
not without some additions derived from his own ob¬ 
servations and experience. He is considered as hav¬ 
ing been the first Greek physician by whom chymical 
medicines are mentioned, as well as various articles of 
the materia medica, which were originally introduced 
by the Arabians. We may regard Actuarius as a dili¬ 
gent collector of facts, acquainted with all the inform¬ 
ation of his age, and as more free from prejudice and 
bigotry than the generality of his contemporaries.§ 

After the extinction of the Saracenic school of 
Spain, we have an interval of about three hundred 
years, from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, dur- 

t Freind, p. 533, 4 Haller, Bibl. Med. lib. iii. sec. 159. Eloy, in 
loco. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 355, 6. 

t For the origin of the term, see Adelung, Gloss Man., in loco. 

§ Freind , p. 452-462. Eloy, in loco. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 241-4. 



284 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

ing which what are termed the dark ages still remain 
enveloped in the deepest gloom; every department of 
science was neglected, and among others that of medi¬ 
cine fell into its lowest state of degradation. What 
remained, either of literature or of science, was in 
possession of the monks, who were themselves grossly 
ignorant, and whose interest it was to preserve man¬ 
kind in the same state of ignorance. The exercise of 
the medical profession was principally in their hands, 
and they still adhered, for the most part, to the doc¬ 
trines and practice of Galen, but with these they mixed 
up a large portion of superstition, and had not unfre- 
quently recourse to magic and astrology. By these 
means they obtained an unbounded influence over the 
minds of the people, and operated so powerfully on the 
imagination of their patients as, in many cases, to give 
an apparent sanction to their confident assumption of 
supernatural agency. || The only branch of science 
which was cultivated with any ardour or success was 
chymistry. The chymistry of these times can indeed 
only be interesting to us, as having led indirectly to 
the discovery of various substances, which have been 
found of great importance in medicine, to which we 
have already referred. Its immediate objects were 
twofold, the transmutation of the baser metals into 
gold, and the discovery of what was termed a universal 
medicine, which should possess the property of remov¬ 
ing all diseases, and preserve the constitution in a 
state of health and vigour; objects which, it is un¬ 
necessary to observe, were completely vain and illu¬ 
sory. Yet by promoting a spirit of research, and by 
making the experimentalist acquainted with the vari¬ 
ous forms and properties of the substances on which 
he operated, they gave him some insight into the phys¬ 
ical laws of matter, and by a gradual, although very 
slow process, laid the foundation of the splendid im¬ 
provements of modern science. Many of the alchy- 
mists of the dark ages, we can have no doubt, were 


II Sprengel, sec. vii. ch. i. 



of medical history 


285 

impostors of the lowest description, who were com¬ 
pletely aware of the folly of their pretensions; but at 
the same time there were others who appear to have 
been the dupes of their own credulity, and who bestow¬ 
ed a large portion of their time and fortune upon these 
researches. Between these two extremes there were 
some rare cases of individuals, who may be entitled to 
hold an intermediate rank, who were sincere and hon¬ 
ourable in their views, and, without giving full credit 
to the professions of the alchymists, conceived that the 
objects at which they aimed were at least not altogether 
impossible. To these we may add another class of 
individuals, consisting of that singular and unaccount¬ 
able compound of knavery and folly, which is not con¬ 
fined to the subject now under consideration, where it 
is extremely difficult to draw the line between these 
two qualities, or to decide which of them forms the 
predominant characteristic. 

The school of Salerno, to which we have referred 
above, obtained a degree of celebrity from its local 
situation, this city being one of the great outlets from 
which the crusaders passed over from Europe to Asia 
in their expeditions to Palestine, and it was probably 
from this circumstance that Robert of Normandy 
stopped at Salerno, in order to be cured of a wound 
which he had received in the holy wars. It was on this 
occasion that the verses mentioned above, and which 
were addressed to him, were written. Upon the decline 
of the Saracenic universities of Spain, the only medical 
knowledge which remained was in Italy, where a few 
individuals, who were not of the ecclesiastical profes¬ 
sion, continued to comment on Galen and Avicenna, 
and occasionally to deliver lectures; but we have a long 
dreary interval, in which there is nothing to arrest our 
attention, or to relieve the dull monotony of ignorance 
and superstition. 

During this period the school of Salerno still re¬ 
tained its reputation, and was even favoured with 
especial privileges by the emperors; but its merits were 


286 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


probably rather comparative than absolute, for we do 
not find any improvement that emanated from it, nor 
any authors whose writings maintained their celebrity 
after the age in which they were produced. It is, 
however, in one respect deserving of our notice, as it 
appears to have been the earliest establishment in 
which what may be styled regular medical diplomas 
were granted to candidates, after they had passed 
through a prescribed course of study, and been sub¬ 
jected to certain examinations. The regulations are 
upon the whole judicious, and display a more enlight¬ 
ened and liberal spirit than might have been expected 
in that age, when the human mind was in so degraded 
a state.* The school of Salerno maintained its celeb¬ 
rity until the thirteenth century, when it was eclipsed 
by the general diffusion of medical science through 
Europe and more particularly by the rising reputation 
of the universities of Bologna and Paris. 

It was about this period that we may date the com¬ 
mencement of a practice which has eventually proved 
of the greatest importance to medical science in all its 
departments—the study of human anatomy. We have 
already had occasion to remark that the ancients, even 
in their most enlightened ages, seldom if ever ventured 
to examine the human subject, but were content to de¬ 
rive their knowledge of it from the dissection of ani¬ 
mals which were supposed the most nearly to resemble 
it, making up the deficiencies by the casual examina¬ 
tions which were afforded them by accidents or dis¬ 
eases, and perhaps more frequently by supposed anal¬ 
ogies, or rather by the efforts of the imagination. 
The individual to whom the credit is ascribed of hav¬ 
ing so far overcome vulgar prejudice as to have intro¬ 
duced this most important improvement into his art, is 
Mondini, a professor in the university of Bologna, who 
is said to have publicly dissected two female subjects 
about the year 1315, and who published an anatomical 

* Freind, p. 535*7- Eloy, art. “Salerne.” Lauth, p. 291, 2. Acker- 
mann, cap. xxxi. 




OF MEDICAIv HISTORY 


287 

description of the human body, which appears to have 
had the rare merit of being drawn immediately from 
nature. This work deservedly obtained a high repu¬ 
tation ; for three hundred years it was considered as a 
standard performance, and was used as a text-book in 
the most celebrated of the Italian universities. Mon- 
dini is also entitled to the gratitude of posterity for 
having given a very early, if not the first example of 
anatomical plates; the figures were cut in wood, and 
although, as might be supposed, they were not exe¬ 
cuted with much elegance or delicacy, they are said to 
have been correct and expressive.f 
About the same time with Mondini lived Gilbert, 
surnamed Anglicanus, a writer who must be consider¬ 
ed as peculiarly interesting to us, from his being the 
earliest English physician whose name is sufficiently 
celebrated to entitle him to a place in the history of 
medicine. There has been much controversy respect¬ 
ing the date of his birth; but it appears the most prob¬ 
able that he flourished in the beginning of the 
fourteenth century. At this time medical science, as 
well as all other kinds of knowledge in this country, 
was in a state of the lowest degradation. There were 
no public means of instruction in any of the branches 
of natural philosophy. The light of science, which 
had dawned in the south of Europe, had not extended 
to the remote shores of Britain, and the learning of 
the age, which was confined to the monks, consisted en¬ 
tirely of scholastic disquisitions and the disputations of 
polemical theology. We are not, therefore, to expect 
in the writings of Gilbert much of genuine philosophy 
or of real science; his principal work, which is entitled 
“Medicinae Compendium,” consists chiefly of subtile 
distinctions, disquisitions respecting trifling and insig¬ 
nificant topics, with minute divisions of his subject, 
which lead to no useful purpose or general conclusion. 
His medical theories are principally taken from Galen, 


t Freind, p. 546. Haller, Bibl. Anat. §. 120, t. i. p. 146, 7. Eloy, 
in loco. Portal, Hist. Anat. t. i. 209-16. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 432-4. 
Douglas, Bibliogr. Anat. p. 36-9. Blumenbach, §. 1x8. 



288 


A BIOGRAPHICAL, CYCLOPEDIA 


while his mode of reasoning proceeds upon the techni¬ 
cal principles of the Aristotelian dialectics; he adopts 
the former without discrimination, and employs the 
latter without judgment. He frequently refers to the 
Arabian physicians, and there is some reason to sup¬ 
pose that it was through their means, i. e. through the 
medium of the Latin translations of their writings, 
that he made himself acquainted with the opinions of 
Galen.* 

But although we are compelled to pass this general 
censure upon the works of Gilbert, justice demands it 
of us to admit, that his defects may be fairly ascribed 
to the age and country in which he lived, and that he 
deserves great commendation for the attempt which he 
made, however imperfect it may have been. Nor are 
his works entirely without merit or originality; he has 
described some diseases in such a manner as to show 
that, under more favourable circumstances, he might 
have excelled in the art of making observations; he 
occasionally gives us some particulars of his practice, 
which prove that he was capable of exercising a cor¬ 
rect judgment in the treatment of the cases which were 
submitted to him, and we are indebted to him for some 
additions to the materia medica, and for some im¬ 
provement in pharmacy.f 

About this period a grand political revolution was 
commencing in Europe, which eventually produced an 
entire change in the civil condition of its inhabitants, 
and indirectly affected, in an equal degree, its science 
and its literature. The feudal system, after being 
firmly established for some centuries, began to be 
shaken, perhaps in the first instance, by the crusades. 
These expeditions, although undertaken from a spirit 
of gross superstition and bigotry, yet, by giving a de¬ 
gree of excitement to the mind, and still more by mak¬ 
ing the crusaders in some degree acquainted with the 
literature of the Arabians, laid the foundation for sub- 

* Warton’s Hist, of Eng. Poet. v. i. p. 443. 

t Freind, p. 547-50. Bloy, in loco. Aikin's Biog. Mem. of Med. in 
Gt. Brit. p. 8, 9. Sprengel, t. li. p. 4026. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


289 


sequent improvements. There has been much contro¬ 
versy, not only respecting the absolute merit of the 
Arabian literature, but respecting the influence which 
it had on that of Europe. On the first of these points, 
as far at least as regards the medical sciences, I have 
already offered a few remarks; and on the latter I may 
observe, that at the period of the crusades, whatever 
may be our estimate of the absolute merit of the Sara¬ 
cenic schools of learning, they were undoubtedly super¬ 
ior to those of the Christians, if indeed these latter can 
be entitled to the appellation. The armies of the cru¬ 
saders were certainly not the best adapted either for ap¬ 
preciating the learning of the countries which they in¬ 
vaded, or for transferring any portion of it to their 
own; but still an intercourse of two or three centuries 
could not fail of having produced some effect, and in 
fact we know, not only that Arabian books were read 
and studied in Italy and France, but that it was almost 
exclusively by the medium of these books that the 
knowledge of the Greek and Roman authors was kept 
alive.J 

The advantages which were derived to the Euro¬ 
peans from their intercourse with Asia were, however, 
of but little moment compared to the great events to 
which I alluded above. The first of these was the cap¬ 
ture of Constantinople, in the middle of the fifteenth 
century, by Mahomet the Second. The Greek mon¬ 
asteries of this city had been for some time the refuge 
of the learned men who had been driven from Italy by 
the perpetual wars in which that country had been so 
long engaged. They had taken with them what they 
considered as their most precious treasures, the manu¬ 
scripts of the ancient classical writers, probably re¬ 
garding them more as objects of curiosity than of real 
importance. These manuscripts had now been buried 
for a long time in their libraries, their existence being 

t Gibbon, ch. lxi. Sprengel, sect. 7, ch. iii. I must remark that the 
opinion expressed in the text, respecting the influence of the crusades 
on the literature and science of Europe, differs in some degree from 
that of Mr Mills, as stated in his interesting work on the Crusades, 
v ii. p. 354*68. 

19 



29 O A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

unknown to the rest of the world, when the monks 
were expelled from their retreats by the Turkish con¬ 
querors, and, flying into Italy, carried back with them 
their classical manuscripts. A spirit of improvement 
had already begun to manifest itself in this country, 
which was considerably incited by their guests, who, in 
their turn, by their change of situation and by the new 
society into which they were introduced, became more 
aware of the value of their literary treasures; while 
their own acquirements, limited as they were, gave 
them a degree of respect with their new associates 
which tended to inspire them with a desire of further 
improvement.* 

The other event to which I referred, and which oc¬ 
curred about thirty years after the destruction of the 
Byzantine empire, was one of infinitely more import¬ 
ance, both in its immediate and its ultimate effects. 

Considered in all its bearing, both moral and politi¬ 
cal, it may probably be regarded as the most important 
which has ever occurred in the history of civilized 
society. My readers will not need to be informed that 
the great event to which I refer is the Reformation. 
Into the causes of this event, the motives of Luther and 
his associates, the difficulties with which they had to 
struggle, and the means by which they succeeded in 
overcoming these difficulties, it is not our business to 
inquire. It only remains for me to notice its effects on 
science, and more particularly on medical science* I 
have remarked above that a certain degree of mental 
exertion had begun to manifest itself in the fourteenth 
century, that this was in some measure brought into 
action by the excitement produced in consequence of 
the crusades, and the minds of men were thus prepar¬ 
ed to receive the great truths which were so powerfully 
impressed upon them by the reformers. The first ef¬ 
fect, however, of the Reformation was rather un¬ 
favourable to the progress of science and literature. 
The attention was entirely absorbed by the violence of 


Ackermann, ch. xxxii. Cabanis, § 7. 



OF MEDICAE HISTORY 


29I 


theological controversy, and the civil feuds which suc¬ 
ceeded put a stop to the peaceful labours of the scholar 
and the philosopher. But if a temporary pause was 
thus produced, the subsequent advance was propor¬ 
tionally rapid. No sooner were the minds of men de¬ 
livered from the thraldom of theological bigotry, than 
they felt a strong impulse to free themselves from the 
tyranny of opinions on all other subjects in philosophy; 
and although it still required the lapse of some cen¬ 
turies to shake off the undue authority of Aristotle and 
Galen, and to form a fair estimate of their real merits, 
they were at least regarded as fair topics for discus¬ 
sion, while innovators were every day rising up, who 
ventured to question their infallibility, without the 
danger of being stigmatized as schismatics and 
heretics.f 

The happy invention of the art of printing, “an 
art which derides the havoc of time and barbarism/’ 
and which fortunately occurred about the same period, 
most powerfully tended to co-operate with the labours 
of the reformers, both in religion and in science, by af¬ 
fording them the means of more readily communica¬ 
ting the result of their inquiries, and of preserving the 
records of knowledge from the danger which they had 
lately experienced of being totally lost or destroyed.^ 
One of the first uses which was made of this important 
invention was, not only the multiplication of the works 
of the ancient classics, which had been brought by the 
Byzantine monks into Europe, but, by making man¬ 
kind sensible of their value, other works of a similar 
kind were eagerly sought after, and thus, in the 
course of a few years, manuscripts were discovered of 
almost all the classical writings of which we are now 
in possession. § The munificence, and even the volup¬ 
tuous extravagance of Leo X. and the other Italian po- 


t Enfield, v. ii. book 8, ch. ii. 

j For remarks on the scarcity and value of books, see Robertson s 
Charles V., v. i. ch. v. note 10; Warton’s Hist, of English Poetry, 
passim; Berington’s Middle Ages, book vi. p. 507, 8. 

§ Gibbon, v. x. ch. lxvi. Warton, passim. Berington, book vi. p. 
478 et seq. Shepherd’s Eife of Poggio, passim. Hallam’s Middle Ages, 
v. iii. p. 577 et seq. 



292 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

tentates, by the direct encouragement which they gave 
to literature and the fine arts, powerfully coincided 
with the current of public opinion. For, although by 
inciting the daring spirit of Luther to take those steps 
of open hostility against the papal authority, which he 
probably little contemplated in the first instance; they 
produced effects very different from those originally 
intended, yet they must be considered as among the in¬ 
direct causes which conspired to produce the great 
mental revolution of the fifteenth century. 

The science of medicine in its various departments 
was not slow in partaking of the beneficial effects of 
the change which we have been describing. The writ¬ 
ings of the Greek physicians, which had for some cen¬ 
turies been studied through the medium of Arabic 
translations, or even of Arabic commentaries, were 
now read in their original language, or in correct Latin 
versions.* It was found that Avicenna, Averroes, and 
the great luminaries of the Saracenic schools, had in 
many cases either misunderstood or perverted the doc¬ 
trines and tenets of Galen, and his genuine writings 
now began to be substituted for the imperfect tran¬ 
scripts of them which had so long occupied their place. 
The works of Hippocrates were also printed in their 
original form; but it required a considerably longer 
period of mental education to enable the bulk of medi¬ 
cal readers to appreciate his merits, so that, although 
various editions of his works were printed, and learned 
treatises written to explain them, Galen still retained 
the pre-eminence in public estimation. 

A practice began to prevail about the fifteenth cen¬ 
tury, which very materially contributed to advance the 
science of medicine, and especially the practical part of 
it—the publication of monographs of particular dis¬ 
eases and of individual cases, with the reports of hospi¬ 
tals or other public institutions. This plan was not, 
indeed, altogether new, for we meet with narratives of 

* There is reason to believe that Greek was little read in any part 
of Europe until after the capture of Constantinople in 1453; Ockley, 
pref. p. xii. 



OE MEDICAL HISTORY 


293 


cases even in Hippocrates; but it had been either mis¬ 
understood or had been so much perverted from its 
original design and legitimate object, as to have been 
rendered of little value. Many of these early collec¬ 
tions, it must be acknowledged, were formed without 
judgment, and consisted rather of marvellous stories 
than of histories from which any practical inference 
could be deduced; but they served the purpose of in¬ 
ducing a habit of observation, and of directing the at¬ 
tention more to facts than to mere hypotheses. In 
each succeeding age we find this plan to have been 
more generally adopted, and at the same time to have 
been much improved in its method; so that we may un¬ 
doubtedly consider it as one of the means by which 
medical knowledge has advanced so rapidly in modern 
times. 

Before I close the second period of the history of 
medicine, it will be necessary to make a few observa¬ 
tions on the progress of chymistry, and on the influence 
which it had on medical science. I have already made 
some remarks on the rise of this science, and on the 
progress which it made among the Arabians, and have 
stated that it originated in the futile and sordid desire 
of converting the baser metals into gold. In its pri¬ 
mary object it of course totally failed; yet in the num¬ 
erous and laboured efforts which the alchymists made 
to accomplish their object, it is admitted that they ac¬ 
quired considerable information about the nature and 
properties of the bodies on which they operated, and 
thus produced various compounds, principally of a 
metallic nature, which were eminently useful in the 
arts of life, and especially in pharmacy. We further 
owe to the Arabian chymists the discovery of the pro¬ 
cess of distillation, and the art of preparing extracts; 
they introduced the use of sugar into pharmacy in¬ 
stead of honey, in the composition of syrups and con¬ 
serves ; they seem to have made some approach to the 
formation of the mineral acids, and to have procured 
several of the earthy and neutral salts. 


294 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


The art of alchymy was early transferred into the 
different countries of Europe, and was pursued with as 
much ardour as by the Arabians, and perhaps with 
even more superstition and credulity. Some of the 
alchymists acquired, during their lifetime, a high de¬ 
gree of popularity, and notwithstanding the unphiloso- 
phical nature of their occupation, are not altogether un¬ 
worthy of notice in the history of science. Albertus 
Magnus, bishop of Ratisbon, Raymond Lully, a Span¬ 
ish ecclesiastic, and Arnoldus of Villanova, a profes¬ 
sor in the university of Barcelona, all flourished in the 
thirteenth century, and left behind them writings 
which, although they are encumbered with a mass of 
folly and mysticism, exhibit in a certain degree the 
spirit of philosophical research, together with an ample 
share of industry and patient investigation.* *)* In the 
same age lived Roger Bacon; he may be classed among 
the alchymists, inasmuch as he adopted some of their 
principles and practices; but in the turn of his mind, 
and in the spirit with which he entered upon his ex¬ 
perimental researches, he exhibited a genius which far 
outstripped the age in which he lived.* The philoso¬ 
pher’s stone, which was the object of so much painful 
research, besides its property of producing gold, was 
supposed also to possess the power of curing all dis¬ 
eases, and hence obtained the title of the universal 
medicine. This vain and fantastical notion was indi¬ 
rectly the cause of some pharmaceutical discoveries; 
for to this we may consider ourselves indebted for the 
mercurial preparations, and for the experiments of 
Basil Valentine on antimony, which led to their intro- 

t Freind. p. 543*5- Bayle’s Diet., art. “Albert.” Eloy, “Arnauld 
de Villeneuf.” Moreri, art. “Albert,” t. i. p. 269; and “Arnauld de 
Villeneuf,” t. i. p. 346, 7. Ackermann, §. 446, 7. Berington, book v. 
p. 370. Sprengel, t. i. p. 437*443- Blumenbach, §. 120-3. Turner’s 
Modern History of England, book ii. ch. i. p. 7, 8. 

* Freind, p. 537-543. Campbell, Biog. Brit., in loco. Bale, Scrip. 
Illust. Brit. p. 342-4. Cave, Hist. Lit. t. ii. p. 324-6. Bayle, in loco. 
Eloy, in loco. Berington, book v. p. 373. Hallam’s Middle Ages, vol. 
iii. p. 539» note. Nouv. Diet. Hist., in loco. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 397, 8. 
Wood’s History of Oxford, by Gutch, vol. i. p. 332-344. EnHeld, Hist. 
Phil. vol. ii. p. 346-8; and in Aikin’s Gen. Biog., in loco. Suard, Biog. 
Univ., in loco. 



OF MEDICAL, HISTORY 295 

duction into medicine about the end of the fourteenth 
century. 

Among the distinguishing features of the period at 
which we are now arrived, I must not omit to mention 
the various universities which were established in many 
of the great cities in the southern parts of Europe, of 
which the medical chairs, in most cases, formed a very 
distinguished part. I have already had occasion to 
mention the university of Salerno, which was the first 
of these establishments after the destruction of the 
Roman empire. The next in order of time appears to 
have been that of Montpellier, which is said to have 
been established not long after that of Salerno, and 
which acquired a high degree of reputation, which it 
maintained for many centuries. We are informed that 
Bologna had acquired considerable celebrity as a school 
of medicine in the thirteenth century; that about half a 
century later medical lectures were delivered in the 
universities of Vienna and Paris; and that about the 
same time medical schools were established in Padua, 
Pavia, Milan, Rome, and Naples, and most of the other 
cities of Italy, which each of them acquired a certain 
degree of reputation, necessarily varying with the abili¬ 
ties and characters of their professors, but all contri¬ 
buting to advance medical science, both by the actual 
acquisition of knowledge, and by the influence which 
they exercised in removing the undue veneration that 
was still paid to the writers of antiquity.f In the 
north of Europe the progress of literature and science 
was much more tardy. The natural sciences were 
scarcely regarded as an object of attention, and medi¬ 
cine was still strictly confined to the study of the works 
of Galen, or even to those of his Arabic translators. 
The only exception of which our country can boast is 
Linacre, a native of Canterbury, who, after studying 

t The dates of the establishment of the various universities may 
be found in Eloy, t. iii. p. 223. The learned work of Ttraboscht, 
‘'Storia della Uteratura Italians,” contains the most ample information 
respecting the universities of that country. See also, Lauth, Iiist. 
d’Anatomie, liv. v. part 4, sect. 1, §• 2, 



296 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

at Oxford, travelled into Italy, and spent some time at 
the court of Florence, where he acquired a portion of 
that love of literature which so eminently distinguished 
the family of the Medici. On his return to England 
he was appointed physician to the royal household, and 
employed his influence in establishing medical profes¬ 
sorships in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, 
and in forming the foundation of the London College 
of Physicians.^ 

From the various causes which have been mentioned, 
and probably from some others of less moment, a spirit 
of general improvement now began to manifest itself; 
the arts and sciences gradually revived; philosophy, in 
all its branches, was studied on a more correct plan and 
with a more enlightened object, and medicine was not 
slow in partaking of the beneficial influence. One of 
the first symptoms of this improvement was an increas¬ 
ing relish for the writings of Hippocrates, and the re¬ 
vival of his method of studying and practising medi¬ 
cine. The taste for complicated theory and refined 
speculation gradually declined, and in the same propor¬ 
tion the value of correct observation and an accurate 
detail of facts began to be duly estimated. 

A circumstance which tended in a considerable de¬ 
gree to shake the authority of Galen, and to diminish 
the veneration in which his opinions had been held for 
so many ages, was the rise of the sect of the Chymical 
Physicians. After chymistry had been used with ad¬ 
vantage for the purpose of improving the processes of 
pharmacy, it was applied to the explanation of the 
phenomena of vitality, and of the operation of morbid 
causes upon the living system. The theories of these 
chymical physicians we now regard as altogether false 
and inapplicable; but they were advanced with so much 
confidence that they obtained many adherents, and for 

$ Freind, p. 587-591. We here lose the assistance of this learned 
and judicious historian. Eloy, in loco. Cabanis, p. 144, 5. Sprengel, 
t. ii. p. 8. Aikin’s Biog. Mem. of Med. p. 28-47. In connection with 
Linacre we may mention the name of Key, Kaye, or, as it was latinized, 
accprding to the custom of the times, Caius, whose liberality to the 
University of Cambridge deserves honourable mention. Aikin, Biog. 
Mem. p. 103-136; and Gen. Biog., in loco. Eloy, in loco. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


297 


some time the opinions of the medical world were di¬ 
vided between the rival doctrines of the Galenists and 
the Chymists. 

Among the most noted supporters of the chymical 
theory was Paracelsus, an individual whose claim to our 
notice depends more upon his consummate vanity and 
presumption than upon his abilities and acquirements. 
His professed object was to undermine the authority 
of the Galenists; and for this purpose he did not hesi¬ 
tate to hold forth the most absurd claims, and to prac¬ 
tise the basest arts of quackery. He boasted that he 
had discovered the elixir vitae, the universal remedy, 
of which mankind had been so long in search; and he 
publicly burned the writings of Galen and Avicenna, 
because, in consequence of his discovery, they were of 
no further use. It is somewhat difficult to determine 
in what degree Paracelsus was actually the dupe of his 
own folly; but whatever may have been his real opinion 
of the efficacy of his elixir, his own death, at the early 
age of forty-eight, served to humble the confidence of 
his followers, and to reduce his reputation to its real 
standard. 

But although the personal character of Paracelsus 
received an irreparable shock by this event, his doc¬ 
trines continued to attract a number of zealous advo¬ 
cates. With respect to the nature of these doctrines, it 
will be necessary to say but a few words in this place. 
The leading principle of the Chymists was, that the liv¬ 
ing body is subject to the same chymical laws with in¬ 
animate matter, and that all the phenomena of vitality 
may be explained by the operation of these laws. The 
proofs which they adduced in favour of this principle, 
and the illustrations which they gave of the nature of 
these laws, were completely futile and unsatisfactory; 
and it may be asserted that the strength of their rea¬ 
soning was much more apparent in the mode by which 
they attempted to controvert the hypothesis of the Gal¬ 
enists, than in the direct arguments which they brought 
forward in favour of their own doctrine. In truth, the 


298 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

chymical elements of Paracelsus were at least as hy¬ 
pothetical as the physiological elements of Galen, and 
were even less applicable to the explanation of the vital 
actions of organized beings. The only obligation 
which we owe to the chymical physicians is the intro¬ 
duction into medicine of certain substances, chiefly 
metallic preparations, which, in the hands of the more 
enlightened practitioners of modern times, have proved 
very valuable additions to the materia medica.* 

After the death of Paracelsus, his peculiar theories 
fell into disrepute and were little attended to; but the 
sect of the chymical physicians continued to flourish 
even as late as the seventeenth century, when we meet 
with many examples of men of learning and sagacity 
who attempted to explain the phenomena of the animal 
economy by the laws of chymistry. To the visionary 
speculations of the Chymists there was united a large 
portion of superstition and mysticism; and so much did 
this feeling coincide with the spirit of the times, that 
even the men who were most illustrious for their learn¬ 
ing and science were either actually infected with these 
notions, or did not venture so far to oppose the pre¬ 
vailing opinions of their contemporaries as to avow 
their disbelief of them. Astrology and magic were 
generally practised by the members of the medical pro¬ 
fession, while various rites and ceremonies were ob¬ 
served, which implied the belief of supernatural 
agency, but which, by a singular inconsistency, was 
supposed to be a constant and necessary part of the 
process. 

Before we conclude this portion of our subject, we 
must notice the remarkable circumstance, that about 
this period, during the fourteenth and fifteenth cen¬ 
turies, some very formidable diseases made their ap¬ 
pearance in Europe, the origin of which is still very ob- 


* Le Clerc, p. 792 et seq. Barchusen, Diss. 19. Conring, cap. xi. 
§. 16, 17. Haller, Bib. Med. t. ii. p. 2 et seq. Eloy, in loco. Sprengel, 
sect. ix. ch. 2. Cabanis, sect. ix. Hutchinson’s Biog. Med. vol. ii. p. 
197-209. Enfield, vol. ii. p. 451-4. Aikin’s Gen. Biog., in loco. Blumen- 
bach, Introd. §. 169. Renauldin, Biog. Univ., “Paracelse.” 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


299 


scure, after all the discussion and investigation that 
has taken place respecting them. Among these, one of 
the most remarkable is what was termed the Sudor 
Anglicanus, which is first mentioned about the end of 
the fifteenth century, and which, for about fifty years, 
raged at intervals with extreme violence in England 
and in some other countries in the west of Europe.* 
In the fifteenth century we have the first correct de¬ 
scription of the hooping-cough; and from the manner 
in which it is spoken of by the contemporary writers, 
it would appear that it was considered by them as a new 
disease. The sea-scurvy, if not entirely unknown to 
the ancients, was at least not distinctly recognized until 
this period, so that, if it existed previously, we may 
conclude that it was less violent in its effects; a circum¬ 
stance which has been ascribed, with great plausibility, 
to the spirit of naval enterprise which sprang up at 
this period, and which led to the undertaking of long 
voyages.f 

The great number of establishments which were 
formed during the dark ages for the cure of leprosy, 
was at one time supposed to be a proof that it was a 
new disease in Europe, imported, as was imagined, 
from Asia by the crusaders. There has been much nos¬ 
ological discussion concerning ,the exact nature of the 
disease to which this term ought to be applied; whether 
there were actually two species of leprosy, one of which 
was indigenous in the East, and another species in 
Europe. Some writers have conceived that a combina¬ 
tion of the two was produced at this period, while 
others again have supposed that the disease had pre¬ 
viously existed in Europe, but that, in consequence of 
the greater degree of communication between the dif¬ 
ferent parts of it, which was brought about by the 
crusaders, the disease was either more extensively pro¬ 
pagated, or at least was brought more into notice, and 

* Sennert, De Feb. lib. iv. cap. 15. Freind, p.. 567, ?. Plouquet, 
“Febris Sudatoria,” t. ii. p. 162. Cullen’s Synopsis, t. u. p. 77. 8. 
Sprengel t. ii. p. 491 - 4 - 

t Freind, p. 583. Sprengel, t. 11. p. 494 *o- 



3 °° 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


that more active means were therefore employed for 
its relief.^ 

It was about the same period, when the western part 
of the old continent was in its lowest state of degrada¬ 
tion, that we hear of the ravages of those varieties of 
fever emphatically styled the plague, which were de¬ 
scribed in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth cen¬ 
turies as invading various parts of Europe and Asia, and 
sweeping away a large proportion of the inhabitants. § 
The accounts which we have of these epidemics would 
indicate that they were not an absolutely new disease, 
but that the symptoms were modified and aggravated 
by the peculiar condition of the great bulk of the peo¬ 
ple; a conclusion which is confirmed by the fact, that, 
as the physical and moral condition of nations has been 
ameliorated, the occurrence of these diseases has be¬ 
come proportionally rare, so that we conceive them to 
be almost incompatible with the improvements in civili¬ 
zation and in medical police which exist in the greatest 
part of Europe. 

But whatever may be our opinion concerning the 
origin of leprosy and the plague, there is another dis¬ 
ease where, from the peculiarity of its symptoms, its 
decidedly contagious nature, the ordinary method of its 
propagation, and the universality of its occurrence, we 
are enabled to fix the date of its appearance in Europe 
with more certainty. It is now generally agreed that 
it was near the close of the fifteenth century that the 
symptoms of syphilis were first recognized in Italy, 
from which country the disease very rapidly extended 
over the whole of Europe. Concerning its primary 
origin much controversy has taken place; many writ¬ 
ers have attempted to prove that it was brought into 
Europe from America by Columbus; but this opinion, 
which was at one time pretty generally received, is 
now abandoned, nor are we able to offer any plausible 

tSprengel, t. ii. p. 371*5- 

§ Plouquet, “Febris Maligna,” and “Pestis,” 

74 - 7 . 139 - 41 - 


in loco. Cullen, t. ii. p. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 3OI 

conjecture respecting its introduction from any other 
quarter. 

The same difficulty, indeed, exists in this case as in 
that of all those diseases which are produced by no 
cause except by a specific contagion. Almost every 
individual is obnoxious to them upon the application of 
this cause, and this liability appears to be little affected 
by constitution, age, habits of life, climate, and other 
external circumstances. The question is, how were 
they first produced? It is impossible to imagine that 
the first created individual was born with all these 
diseases upon him, yet we know of no distinct cause 
now in operation which could, in the first instance, 
have generated them. These remarks apply to the 
small-pox and the measles, which as was stated above, 
were first known to the Europeans about the middle of 
the sixth century, and it applies perhaps still more re¬ 
markably to the case of syphilis. This point must be 
regarded as one of those mysteries of which at present 
we are unable to offer any solution. It is true that the 
manners of the age in which this disease is recorded to 
have first made its appearance were grossly licentious, 
and in many respects unfavourable to health; but still 
we see no satisfactory reason why the specific poison of 
this disease should have been generated; yet it appears 
impossible to conceive that, if it had previously existed, 
it could have remained for any length of time unknown 
or undescribed.* 

I have now brought down the sketch of the history 
of medicine to the period when the light of improve¬ 
ment was bursting forth from various quarters, when 
men were engaged in the investigation of the different 
departments of science upon a plan which, although not 
free from error, was more correct than that of their 
predecessors, and which, by a slow but steady process, 
led to the establishment of those principles which event- 

* Freind, p. 568-583. Astruc, De Morbis Veneriis. Hunter on the 
Ven. Dis. p. 9. 10. Sprengel, t. ii. p. 499, et seq. Plouquet, “Syphilis, 
Historia,” &c., in loco. Black’s Hist, of Medicine, p. 147-155- 



302 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


ually produced the complete triumph of truth and 
philosophy over error and superstition. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

General View of the State of Medicine during the Sixteenth 
Century—Revival of the Hippocratean School—Account of 
the Galenists—The Chymists—The Anatomists—Vesalius, 
Fallopius, Eustachius. 

I have already given an account of the manner in 
which the taste for the classical writers of antiquity 
was gradually developed during the fifteenth century, 
and I stated that in medicine, as well as in the other 
departments of science, the Greek writers began to be 
studied in the original, instead of their being read 
through the medium of translation and commentaries. 
As this taste was further matured, the works of Hip¬ 
pocrates continued to rise into estimation in preference 
to those of Galen, and a new school of medicine was 
formed, which obtained the name of Hippocratean, the 
professed object of which was to proceed upon the in¬ 
ductive principle, of first ascertaining facts, and by 
their generalization to form the theory. That in every 
instance they adhered to this plan we cannot affirm; in¬ 
deed we have too many instances where they forgot or 
misapplied their own principles, but still the import¬ 
ance of accurate observation was generally admitted, 
and although mankind could not at once abandon their 
former errors, they became aware of their existence, 
and of the method by which they might be corrected. 

The contest between the Galenists and the Chymists, 
which agitated the whole medical world during the 
fifteenth century, was indeed still maintained through 
the sixteenth; but it was conducted upon more rational 
principles, and by men of more enlarged and more en¬ 
lightened views. The Galenists were for the most part 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


303 


more scientific and learned than their adversaries; they 
consisted of the professors in the universities and what 
may be styled the regular practitioners; and although 
they were still strongly attached to the tenets of their 
master, they did not omit to collect facts and to watch 
the phenomena of disease. Their practice may be 
characterized as being at the same time complicated 
and inert; their materia medica was principally taken 
from the vegetable kingdom, while their prescriptions 
were long and multifarious, consisting of a prodigious 
number of articles, combined together in such a man¬ 
ner as to render it almost impossible to conceive the 
probable operation of the compound, their indications, 
at the same time, being derived from an incorrect 
hypothesis, and being often either unintelligible or im¬ 
practicable. 

The Chymists were the bold empirics of the. day, 
without learning or experience; but they endeavoured 
to supply the deficiency by confidence and temerity, 
and by these formidable weapons they frequently 
triumphed over their adversaries. They discarded the 
long prescriptions of the Galenists, rejected many of 
the articles of their pharmacopoeia, while they introduc¬ 
ed the active metallic preparations, and made free use 
of the most powerful remedies of all kinds. The rival 
sects mutually upbraided each other with the injurious 
effect of their respective plans of treatment, and proba¬ 
bly there was but too much foundation for their accu¬ 
sations ; for if on the one hand the Chymists, by their 
rashness committed many fatal blunders, the Galenists, 
by their feeble remedies, must have frequently failed 
in subduing disease or arresting its progress. 

It appears that, upon the whole, the Chymists, like 
the analogous characters in the present day, acquired a 
greater share of popularity than their opponents. 
Their arrogant pretensions, the more decisive and in¬ 
telligible nature of their indications, coupled with the 
artifices which they practised for the mere purpose of 
acquiring popularity, gave them a decided advantage 


304 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

over their more learned and more dignified rivals, who 
were both unable and unwilling to contend with them 
in the race of empiricism. By degrees, however, the 
chymical physicians rendered themselves more worthy 
of the public estimation, by making themselves better 
acquainted with the principles and practice of their 
art; the search after the philosopher’s stone was grad¬ 
ually abandoned; and although many of the doctrines 
which they still professed were altogether unfounded, 
they were less palpably absurd than those of their pre¬ 
decessors. 

Another circumstance occurred about the period of 
which we are now treating, which contributed to pro¬ 
duce a most important reform in the science of medi¬ 
cine—I refer to the study of human anatomy. With a 
very few exceptions, which have been noticed above, 
during a space of more than a thousand years, since 
the death of Galen, very little advance had been made 
in our acquaintance with the structure of the body. 
The professors of the Arabian school, with their suc¬ 
cessors in Italy and France, for the most part content¬ 
ed themselves with copying the descriptions of the an¬ 
cients, without ever calling in question their accuracy, 
or endeavouring to confirm or refute them by their own 
observations. Even after the examination of the hu¬ 
man subject had been practised for some time, and its 
necessity generally acknowledged, it was long before 
mankind could so far free themselves from the tyranny 
of authority as to admit that any imperfection could 
exist in the works of Galen, or that his descriptions 
were not to be preferred even to the evidence of the 
senses. 

In reviewing the state of medical science during the 
sixteenth century, it will assist us in our progress if 
we arrange the principal authors under the three 
classes of the Physicians strictly so called, the Chy- 
mists, and the Anatomists. Under the first head we 
purpose to include both the writers who still adhered 
implicitly to the tenets of Galen, and those who, paying 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


305 


less regard to mere authority, devoted themselves more 
to observing the phenomena of disease, and the effects 
of remedies, and who may be considered as having laid 
the foundation of the modern Hippocratean school. Of 
these, some of the most distinguished by their character 
or writings were Cornarus and Mercurialis in Italy, 
Hollerius, Fernel, and Duret in France, Lommius and 
Forest in Holland, Sennert, Plater, and Foes in Ger¬ 
many, and Linacre in England.* 

The limits to which I am necessarily confined will 
not permit me to enter into any detail of the individual 
merits of these authors, or into any analysis of their 
writings or opinions. For the most part, they were 
possessed of a competent knowledge of ancient litera¬ 
ture, and well acquainted with the works of the Greek 
physicians; many of them were professors in universi¬ 
ties or teachers of medicine, and engaged in extensive 
practice. They were generally diligent collectors of 
facts, and many of them voluminous writers, either 
publishing their own observations, or commenting on 
the ancients. Their practice was, in a great measure, 
taken from Galen, with the additions that had been de¬ 
rived from the materia medica of the Arabians, and in 
a few instances from the Chymists; but these latter 
were regarded as dangerous and empirical, and it was 
not until they had been long sanctioned by popular use 
that they were received into the authorized pharmaco¬ 
poeias. The actual advance which the practice of med¬ 
icine received from these authors was not very consid¬ 
erable; but by their learning and diligence, and their 
general respectability, they contributed to raise the 
character of the profession, and to prepare the mind to 
receive the improvements in science which were grad¬ 
ually unfolded in the next century, and to apply them 
to the department of medicine. 

With respect to the Chymists of this period, although 
they composed a numerous and active body, yet there 
is none of them whose name is sufficiently distinguished 

* Sprengel, t. ii. passim. Cabanis, ch. ii. §. 10. 

20 



306 a biographical cyclopedia 

above his fellows to require being particularized in this 
place. As science and knowledge gradually advanced, 
the absurdity of their speculations was more generally 
perceived, and their pursuits were either abandoned, or 
were directed by a more philosophical spirit; and al¬ 
though the search after the universal medicine was not 
entirely discarded, they began to occupy themselves 
with inquiring into the chymical constitution of the 
body, and investigating the changes that were induced 
in it by disease. This investigation was, indeed, at¬ 
tended with little success; their experiments were 
crude and imperfect, and their modes of analysis alto¬ 
gether inefficient. But still some important observa¬ 
tions were made, and new processes were invented, and 
the foundation began to be laid for the more enlight¬ 
ened views of their successors in the succeeding cen¬ 
tury. 

But the benefit conferred upon the science of medi¬ 
cine by the labours of the Chymists was trifling and 
uncertain compared to the great and direct advance 
which was produced by the researches of the Anato¬ 
mists. Some attention has been paid to the structure of 
the body by the earlier Italians, and they had even 
ventured, in a few instances, to dissect the human sub¬ 
ject; yet scarcely any discovery or any improvement 
deserving of notice had been made for many ages, 
when Vesalius, about the middle of the sixteenth cen¬ 
tury, entered upon his career of inquiry. He was the 
first anatomist who threw off the yoke of authority, 
which had been imposed by a blind veneration for the 
opinion of the ancients, and who ventured to conceive 
the possibility of error in the writings of Galen. Vesa¬ 
lius prosecuted his researches with unwearied dili¬ 
gence ; and, disregarding the obloquy which was heaped 
upon him, he succeeded in publishing an anatomical 
work, which at this day we behold with admiration, 
and which maintains its character as a faithful tran¬ 
script of nature.* 

* Eloy, “Vesale.” Haller, Bib. Anat. lib. 4. §. 163. t. i. p. 180 et 
seq. Sprengel, t. iv. p. 5-9; Douglas, Bibliogr. Anat. p. 64-73. Ren- 
aulatn, Biog. Univ. “Vesale.” 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


307 


But the reputation of Galen was too firmly establish¬ 
ed to be affected in any considerable degree by the ob¬ 
servations of any single individual, however highly he 
might be entitled to the respect of his contemporaries. 
Long and acrimonious discussions occurred between 
the defenders and opposers of Galen, some maintaining 
that his descriptions of the parts of the body were ab¬ 
solutely perfect, while others undertook to prove, by 
direct and palpable facts, that Galen’s knowledge of the 
human form was not complete. It was asserted, on 
the one hand, that he had seldom examined the human 
subject, and that his descriptions were frequently taken 
from apes and monkeys; an imputation which was 
firmly denied by his zealous advocates. Eustachius, 
Fallopius, and others of great and deserved reputation 
for their anatomical skill, undertook the defence of 
Galen; and it was not until after a long and severe 
struggle that the truth was established, and that it was 
agreed that the anatomy of the ancients was in many 
parts imperfect, and that the errors which had been 
pointed out by Vesalius actually existed.f It would be 
foreign to my purpose to enter into a minute examina¬ 
tion of the labours of the individual anatomists, or to 
mention in detail the successive improvements which 
were effected in their department. With respect to the 
practice of medicine, which is my more immediate ob¬ 
ject, it does not appear that they effected any direct 
improvement; but they contributed indirectly to its ad¬ 
vancement, in no small degree, by completely estab¬ 
lishing the important point, that the opinions of the 
ancients were not to be considered as infallible, but 
were to be subjected to the ordeal of free inquiry. 

t Haller, Bib. Chir. lib. 5. “Schola Italica;” and Bib. Anat. lib. 5. 
“Schola Italica.” Fallopius, §. 200. t. i. p. 218 et seq. Eustachius, §. 
205. t. i. p. 233 et seq. Douglas, Bibliogr. Anat. in Fallopio, p. 94-6, 
et in Eustachio, p. 98-100. 



308 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


CHAPTER IX. 

State of Medicine during the Seventeenth Century—The 
Chymical and Mathematical Sects—Progress of Anatomy— 
Fanatics—Chymical Physicians—Sylvius—Willis — Syden¬ 
ham—Mathematical Physicians. 

All the changes of opinion which we have described 
as occurring in the sixteenth century, continued to ad¬ 
vance with an accelerated progress during the seven¬ 
teenth. The preference which was given to Hippoc¬ 
rates over Galen was daily gaining ground, and, as 
the consequence of this, the habit of correct observa¬ 
tion was confirmed, and the value of the observations 
was more justly appreciated. 

In the meantime anatomy was making rapid strides. 
Being a science which depended more immediately 
upon the accumulation of matters of fact, which re¬ 
quired for their attainment little more than industry 
and mere observation, errors were more readily dis¬ 
carded than on those subjects in which much reasoning 
was necessary, and in which it was rather an inference 
from facts than the facts themselves which constituted 
the object of the investigation. The investigations of 
the anatomists extended to every part and structure 
of the body; the forms and texture of the bones, the 
muscles, the nerves, the vessels, and the various viscera 
were each in their turn made the subject of particular 
and minute examination by some of the eminent men of 
the age. These labours were amply rewarded by the 
splendid discovery of the circulation by the immortal 
Harvey, and of the absorbent system by Asselli, Rud- 
beck, and Bartholine; while the structure and office of 
the lungs, and the relation which it bears to the heart, 
were explained by Malpighi, Hooke, Mayow, and their 
associates.* 

* The fourth volume of Sprengel is principally occupied with a 
luminous view of the anatomical discoveries of this period. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


309 


With respect to the chymists of this period, their 
opinions were gradually disengaged from the tissue of 
mystery and credulity in which they had been so long 
involved, when about the middle of the century the 
science was finally placed upon its correct philosophical 
basis by the genius of Boyle. He correctly regarded 
it as an investigation into the change of properties 
which bodies experience by their action upon each 
other, and he pursued the investigation, not by presup¬ 
posing the existence of certain occult causes and hy¬ 
pothetical agencies, but by an accurate examination of 
the effects which bodies actually produce upon each 
other, when placed within the sphere of their mutual 
action.f 

It is, however, not a little remarkable that while the 
science of chymistry generally, and more especially the 
sect of the chymical physicians, was purifying itself of 
its grosser errors, we meet with not unfrequent in¬ 
stances where it continued to be combined with a sin¬ 
gular degree of fanaticism. There was indeed no 
period, since the time of Paracelsus, when there were 
more remarkable examples of the prevalence of this 
spirit, and in no country were they more notorious than 
in England. The writings of Fludd, who practised in 
London in the early part of the seventeenth century, 
afford a curious compound of learning and folly, of 
profound erudition, united to an implicit faith in as¬ 
trology and in all the cabalistic opinions of the Jewish 
doctors.^ Perhaps a still more remarkable example of 
this combination is that of the celebrated Kenelm Digby, 
a man of rank and of refined education, who, dur¬ 
ing his travels on the continent, became initiated into 
this mysterious chymical philosophy, and on his return 
gave a specimen of his opinions by publishing an ac- 

f Campbell, Biog. Brit, in loco. Haller, Bib. Med. lib. ix. §. 702, t. 
iii. p. 109-13. Nicholson, Aikin’s Gen. Biog. in loco. Morell, Brewster’s 
Encyc. in loco. Suard et Cuvier, Biog. Universelle, in loco. 

t Enfield, v. ii. p. 454 , 5 - Sprengel, t. v. p. 6-9. Eloy, in loco; 
Haller, Bib. Med. t. ii. p. 469. Aikin’s Biog. Mem. of Med. p. 271-5. 
Hutchinson’s Biog. Med. v. i. p. 303 * 5 * 



3io 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


count of the virtues of the sympathetic powder.§ An¬ 
other of these individuals who obtained great celebrity 
was Valentine Greatrix, who cured all diseases by the 
imposition of the hand, and who even ventured to op¬ 
pose his power in this respect to the royal touch of 
Charles.* * These circumstances are interesting, not 
merely as forming a part of the history of medicine, 
but as displaying a singular feature in the history of the 
human mind; demonstrating the difficulty which exists 
in eradicating from it errors and follies, even the most 
gross and palpable, when they have once become deeply 
rooted.f 

While what .may be more strictly termed chymistry 
was advancing into the state of science, a combination 
was formed between its principles and those of physi¬ 
ology, which gave rise to the new sect of the chymical 
physicians. Their leading doctrine was, that the oper¬ 
ations of the living body are all guided by chymical 
actions, of which one of the most important and the 
most universal is fermentation. The states of health 
and of disease were supposed to be ultimately referri- 
ble to certain fermentations, which took place in the 
blood or other fluids, while these fluids themselves 
were the result of specific fermentations, by which they 
were elaborated from the elements of which the body is 
composed. Again, certain humours were supposed to 
be naturally acid, and others naturally alkaline, and ac¬ 
cording as one or the other of these predominated, so 
certain specific diseases were the result, which were to 
be removed by the exhibition of remedies of an oppo¬ 
site nature to that of the disease in question. Accord¬ 
ing to the theory of the chymical physicians, fever was 
supposed to originate in an acid condition of the hum- 


§ Sprengel, t. v. p. 9; Eloy, in loco; Campbell, Biog. Brit, in loco. 
Aikin’s Gen. Biog. in loco. Nouv. Diet. Hist, in loco. Aikin’s (Miss) 
Mem. of Charles I. v. i. p. 410-16. See “A late Discourse,” &c., by 
Sir K. Digby, translated by R. White: a work which affords one of 
those embarrassing cases, where it is so difficult to assign the exact 
limit between credulity and empiricism. 

* Phil. Trans, for 1699, p. 332-4. Lowthorp’s Abrid. of Phil. Trans, 
v. iii. p. ix, 1 2. Sprengel, t. v. p. 10. Hutchinson’s Biog. Med. v. i. p. 

373 - 8 o. 

f Sprengel , sect. 13, ch. 1. 



OF MEDICAL, HISTORY 


311 

ours, and was consequently to be cured by alkalies; and 
in conformity with what is so often found to take place 
in tracing the history of medicine, they discovered that 
alkalies were actually the most efficacious remedies for 
fever. 

The individual who may be considered as having 
first given a connected and consistent view of the 
theory of the medical chymists is Sylvius. He was 
born at Hanau in Flanders in 1614; he graduated in the 
university of Basil, practised for some time at Amster¬ 
dam, and finally was appointed to fill the chair of prac¬ 
tical medicine at Leyden, where by his genius and elo¬ 
quence he acquired a high degree of popularity. From 
this circumstance his peculiar opinions obtained a very 
extensive circulation, and the hypothesis of fermenta¬ 
tion, with the acid and alkaline states of the fluids, after 
some time became the fashionable doctrine of the 
French and German physicians, and had many zealous 
defenders in our own country.^ 

One of the most respectable of the advocates of the 
chymical doctrines of medicine was our learned coun¬ 
tryman Willis. He was only a few years younger than 
Sylvius, and was early in life attached to the science 
of chymistry, which he afterward applied with much 
ingenuity to the explanation of the functions of the 
animal economy. In the year 1659 he published his 
celebrated treatise on fermentation and on fever, the 
object of which is to prove that every organ of the 
body has its peculiar and appropriate fermentation, and 
that a morbid state of these ferments is the cause of all 
diseases. The hypothesis is in itself totally false, but 
it is supported by considerable ingenuity, and his 
works are of real value as containing an accurate ac¬ 
count of the phenomena of disease. Willis was also 
the author of some treatises of very considerable merit 
on the nervous system, and on various physiological 
topics, by which his reputation is amply supported as 

t Eloy, “Dubois.” Haller, Bib. Med. lib. ix. t. ii. p. 627 et seq. 
Sprengel, §. 13, ch. v. Biog. Univ. in loco. 



312 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


one of the most eminent medical philosophers of the 

age.§ 

The reputation of Willis has, however, been some¬ 
what obscured by the still higher reputation of Syden¬ 
ham, a man scarcely inferior to any that has passed 
under our review. He has been frequently styled the 
English Hippocrates, and there are various points of 
analogy between them, both as to general character, 
and as to their peculiar mode of viewing the operations 
of the animal frame. The writings of Sydenham, like 
those of his great predecessor, abound in theory, but 
they also resemble those of Hippocrates, in containing 
the most accurate detail of facts, indicative of a mind 
of great sagacity, which enabled him to seize upon the 
most essential features of a disease, and to direct his 
attention to those points alone which tended to illus¬ 
trate the nature of the morbid changes that were pro¬ 
duced. But the great merit of Sydenham, that which 
has raised his reputation to so high a pitch of celebrity, 
and which causes his works to be still read with admir¬ 
ation, is the same with that which was ascribed to Hip¬ 
pocrates, viz. not allowing his speculative opinions re¬ 
specting the nature or cause of diseases to interfere 
with the treatment. He carefully observed the opera¬ 
tion of remedies on the symptoms, and the action of 
the various external circumstances to which the patient 
is exposed, and from their effect he deduced his indi¬ 
cations. He accommodated his theory to the facts, not, 
as is too frequently the case, the facts to the theory. 
He agreed generally with Willis, in ascribing the ori¬ 
gin of disease to certain morbid fermentations, and he 
conceived the primary changes to take place, not in the 
solids, but, according to the opinion almost universally 
adopted at that period, in the fluids; this, indeed, may 
be regarded as a necessary consequence of the assumed 
hypothesis. 

In one important point he agreed very nearly with 

%Barchusen, Diss. 23, §. 15 et seq. Haller, Bib. Med. §. 685. Eloy, 
in loco. Sprengel, t. v. p. 73-6. Aikin, in loco. Biog. Univ. in loco. 











• f*i) ICAL CYCLOPEDIA 
mcnt medical philosophers of the 

of Willis has, however, been son te¬ 
ed by the still higher reputation of Sydrn- 
its an scarcely inferior to any that has passed 

Me vr review. He has been frequently styled the 
hnghsh Hippocrates, and there are various points of 
, ;-ak>gv between them, both as to general character, 
• •.,' > rheir peculiar mode of viewing the operations 

■ f ; he animal frame. The writings of Sydenham, like 
th >se of his. great predecessor, abound in theory, but 
they also resemble those of Hippocrates, in containing 
the most accurate detail of facts, indicative of a mind 
of great sagacity, which enabled him to seize upon the 
most essential features of a id to direct his 

attention to those points v • > . • tended to illus¬ 
trate the nature . es that were pro¬ 
duced. But t! a of Sydenham, that which 

has raised his ~ e e u> so high a pitch of celebrity, 
id which . •• g . i.o > t ad with admir- 

r.lion, is h ^ liE * 11 C u . scribed to ITip- 
|X>crates, • ing his speculative opinions re¬ 

specting the ♦ or cause of diseases to interfere 
with the treatm* le carefully observed the opera¬ 
tion of rem< he symptoms, and the action of 

the various external circumstances to which the patient 
is exposed, and from their effect he deduced his indi¬ 
cations. He ae ted his theory to the facts, not, 

as is too fre w case, the facts to the theorv 

He agreed j > with Willis, in ascribing the ori¬ 
gin of disease m morbid fermentations, a he 

conceived th # . anges to take place, n. in the 

solids, but, aei o the opinion alt;. r rsally 

adopted at tha i the fluids if; - may 

be regarded as acyconseq . «c assumed 

hypothesis. 

In one importan p.nnt he agr» h very fieri * with 

i Burchusen, Diss. 23, 8. if et iw-t}. Holler, Bib. Mru. T , 6^5. Bloy, 
i’j loco. prgi gel, t. v. p. 73- Aiktn, in loco. Biog. Uni*, in loco. 















































































* 



















































































































. 
































OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


313 


Hippocrates, that diseased action consists essentially in 
an effort of nature to remove some morbid or noxious 
cause, and that the great object of the practitioner is to 
assist in bringing about the proper crisis, and to regu¬ 
late the actions of the system, so as to prevent either 
their excess or their defect. The practice was neces¬ 
sarily of a kind which, in the present day, would be 
styled somewhat inert, consisting rather in attempts to 
palliate certain symptoms, than in any attempt to coun¬ 
teract or remove their cause. But although we may 
conceive that the object in view was not always pre¬ 
cisely what it would have been, had he not been some¬ 
what biased by his hypothesis, the mode in which he 
proceeded to effect his indications is, in most cases, 
very judicious. We may, perhaps, venture to affirm 
that there are few practitioners, even in the present 
day, who were better acquainted with the juvantia 
and lsedentia, who were more successful in attaining a 
just medium between excessive caution and undue vig¬ 
our, and whose proceedings were more guided by the 
dictates of a sound understanding, enlightened by an 
extensive range of observation, and an ample store of 
well-digested experience.* 

I have spoken of Sydenham in connection with Willis 
and the chymical physicians, because in many parts of 
his writings he adopts the hypothesis, that fermenta¬ 
tion and other chymical changes in the state of the 
fluids are the primary causes of disease. Yet I have 
been at the same time especially careful to point out that 
the distinguishing merit of Sydenham consisted in his 
not manifesting an undue attachment to any theory, 
but in devoting himself to the study of disease, and the 
effect of remedies upon it. This merit was not unper¬ 
ceived by his contemporaries, and we learn that he was 
held by them in great respect. Yet the general spirit 
of the age was so entirely devoted to hypothesis and 
speculation, that he can scarcely be said to have made 

* Haller, Bib. Med. Hb. 10, t. iv. p. 188 et seq. Eloy, in loco. 
Sprengel, t. v. p. 566-576. Cabanis, §. 12. Aikin, in loco; Renauldin, 
Biog. Univ. in loco. 



314 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

any great impression upon the general state of medical 
opinion, or to have materially diverted the mind from 
an almost exclusive attention to the theories which 
were then so prevalent. Indeed, with every feeling of 
admiration for the character and acquirements of Syd¬ 
enham, it must be admitted, that he was not himself 
fully aware of the great principle, which is the founda¬ 
tion of true philosophy, as well in medicine as in every 
other department of science, that all theory not derived 
from the generalization of facts is objectionable, and 
almost necessarily leads to erroneous conclusions. Sy¬ 
denham’s natural sagacity caused him to feel the value 
of the inductive method, but it was more from this cir¬ 
cumstance than from any abstract conception of its im¬ 
portance, that he was induced to adopt it. The state 
of medical science was indeed scarcely ripe for that 
reform which had now commenced in many other de¬ 
partments of philosophy. It is more a science of obser¬ 
vation than of experiment, and the observations are of 
peculiarly difficult execution, depending upon the com¬ 
bined operation of various causes, and involving much 
complication in the effects, the respective proportions 
of which it is often extremely difficult to ascertain and 
to appreciate. Hence it required a more matured state 
of medical knowledge before we could arrive at the 
great truths which had been promulgated by Bacon, 
and which were generally recognized in the other de¬ 
partments of science. Although mankind were aware 
of the importance of observation and experience, they 
were not sensible of their full value; and it required 
another century and various successive revolutions of 
theory, before they could be detached from the hypo¬ 
theses that had been transmitted to them from their 
predecessors, and had been sanctioned by the authority 
of so many illustrious names.* 

One of these revolutions was produced by the rise of 
a new theory of medicine, perhaps more captivating 

* We have an ample account of the iatro-chymical sect in Sprengel, 
§. 13, ch. vi.; its advocates were numerous and respectable, but few 
were of that distinction which entitles them to be noticed in this sketch. 



01? MEDICAL, HISTORY 


315 


than any which had yet appeared, from its scientific as¬ 
pect and its high pretensions; we allude to the doc¬ 
trines of the Mathematical Physicians, or, as they have 
been termed, the Iatro-mathematical School. The 
rapid advance which had taken place in mathematical 
science during the latter part of the sixteenth century, 
and the fortunate application of it to various branches 
of natural philosophy, induced some of the Italians to 
apply it to the explanation of the phenomena of the 
living system. Of these, one of the first, both in order 
of time and celebrity, was Borelli. He was a profound 
mathematician, and a man entirely devoted to scientific 
pursuits; and, in his well-known treatise on muscular 
motion, he illustrated in a very happy manner the 
mode in which certain functions of the body may be 
elucidated and explained on mechanical principles. 
Some of the data which he assumes are now admitted 
to be incorrect, and in some cases the deductions are 
not the fair results of the premises; but upon the whole 
it is allowed that he established many important points, 
and considerably advanced our knowledge of the ani¬ 
mal economy. The new path of inquiry, which had 
been thus so successfully opened by Borelli, was soon 
occupied by many of his contemporaries and pupils, 
and, according to the usual custom on such occasions, 
it was carried by them far beyond its legitimate limits, 
and was applied to various topics with which it had lit¬ 
tle connection. One of the most active and ardent in 
this pursuit was Bellini, who was a professor at Pisa, 
and who exhibited such marks of early genius as to 
become a lecturer at the age of twenty. His acquire¬ 
ments were varied, and his talents were splendid, but 
they may be pronounced to be rather specious than 
solid, and to be more adapted to excite applause than 
to advance true science. The mode of reasoning 
which had been employed by Borelli to explain the ac¬ 
tion of the muscles, which is essentially a mechanical 
function, and where such reasoning was therefore ap¬ 
propriate, was extended by Bellini to all the functions 


316 


A BIOGRAPHICAL, CYCLOPEDIA 


and actions of the body, both in health and in disease. 
He maintained, not only that every part of the body is 
under the influence of gravity and mechanical impulse, 
but that these are the sole agents, and that we may ex¬ 
plain all the vital functions merely by the application of 
the principles of hydrostatics and hydraulics. 

The imposing air of the new hypothesis instantly ac¬ 
quired for it a number of converts, embracing many of 
the most learned men of the age. The body was re¬ 
garded simply as a machine composed of a certain 
system of tubes, and calculations were formed of their 
diameter, of the friction of the fluids in passing along 
them, of the size of the particles and the pores, the 
amount of retardation arising from friction and other 
mechanical causes, while the doctrines of derivation, 
revulsion, lentor, obstruction, and resolution, with 
others of an analogous kind, all founded upon mechan¬ 
ical principles, were the almost universal language of 
both physicians and physiologists towards the close of 
the seventeenth century. In proportion as the Math¬ 
ematical sect gained ground, that of the Chymists 
declined, while between the two the old Galenists may 
be considered as nearly extinguished. In Italy and in 
England the mathematical doctrines had many learned 
and zealous adherents; it had also some followers in 
France, although in that country, as well as in Holland 
and Germany, the chymical theory still continued to 
prevail.f 

When we consider the very great influence which 
the iatro-mathematical sect exercised over the theories 
of their contemporaries, we may perhaps be surprised 
that it did not produce any very decided or immediate 
effect upon their practice. In fact, their reasoning was 
more applicable to physiology than to medicine; for 
while it appeared to afford a satisfactory explanation 

t Sprengel, §. 14. Cabanis, ch. 2, §. 9. In Italy we may select, as 
among the most eminent of the iatro-mathematical sect, Borelli, Bellini, 
Castelli, and Guglielmini; in France we have the celebrated Sauvages. 
and in our own country Pitcairne, Charleton, Keill, Jurin, Mead, and 
Freind; we may remark, however, that some of these, although prac¬ 
titioners of medicine, are principally indebted for their reputation to 
their physiological writings. 



OP MEDICAL, HISTORY 3 1 7 

of the phenomena of muscular contraction, of the cir¬ 
culation, and of the other functions in which motion 
was concerned, it was obviously less applicable to the 
explanation of the obscure and secret agencies by 
which diseased action is either produced or removed 
when present. It was, indeed, frequently employed by 
the pathologist to explain the proximate cause of dis¬ 
ease and the operation of remedies, but, except in a few 
instances, it can scarcely be considered as having had 
much effect upon the actual treatment. For the most 
part the practice that was adopted by this sect was 
founded upon the principles of the humoral pathology, 
and may be said to have been fundamentally that of 
the Galenists, although with considerable additions, de¬ 
rived from the more energetic treatment and the en¬ 
larged materia medica of the Chymists. The great 
advantage which the science of medicine derived from 
the Mathematicians was of an indirect nature, depend¬ 
ing upon the habit of close reasoning and strict de¬ 
duction, which is requisite in all mathematical inquir¬ 
ies, and which, although in this instance incorrect in 
the application, and sometimes even founded upon a 
fallacious basis, were detailed with much labour and 
ingenuity, and tended both to improve the intellectual 
powers of the individual, and to raise the character of 
the medical profession. 

During this period, while the minds of men were 
engaged in these controversies, and while so much at¬ 
tention was paid to theoretical reasoning, the practical 
part of the science was apt to be regarded as of second¬ 
ary importance. Certain individuals, indeed, among 
whom Sydenham may be mentioned as a most illustri¬ 
ous example, contributed in an eminent degree to im¬ 
prove our knowledge of the phenomena of disease and 
of the effect of remedies upon it; but it must be con¬ 
fessed that, for the most part, medical men were more 
anxious to establish their favourite doctrines than to 
investigate the truth, and we find that, in the account 
which they give of the details of their practice, they ap- 


318 a biographical cyclopedia 

peared to be much more influenced by the desire of as¬ 
similating their experience to the tenets of their sect, 
than of inquiring how far these tenets were themselves 
sanctioned by their experience. In some instances 
there is too much reason to suspect that the operation 
of the theoretical veiws of the practitioner was decidedly 
unfavourable. The opinion which was entertained by 
the chymical physicians of the nature of the fever, that 
it depended upon an acrid state of the fluids, led to the 
indiscriminate use of alkalies in all cases which were 
considered as belonging to this class of diseases. 
Again, certain hypothetical opinions which were en¬ 
tertained by the mathematical physicians respecting 
the mechanical condition of the blood, caused them to 
employ the lancet in cases where we should now con¬ 
sider it as decidedly injurious. But it does not require 
the illustration of particular facts to prove the position, 
that where the theoretical views which were enter¬ 
tained of the nature of the disease were incorrect, and 
where the practitioner was guided by these views, the 
result must have been frequently unfavourable. Hap¬ 
pily, however, for mankind, there were not wanting 
individuals who rose superior to the spirit of the age, 
who disregarded the controversies of the contending 
sects, and who followed the inductive method of study¬ 
ing medicine which had now been introduced into phi¬ 
losophy by the commanding genius of Bacon. Besides 
Sydenham, our own country may justly boast of the 
names of Morton, Mead, and Freind,* who, although 
not without their bias towards particular opinions, 
were men of superior minds, who were fully aware of 
the imperfection of medical science, and of the value of 
experience, as the means of remedying this imperfec¬ 
tion. 


* For the character and writings of these eminent physicians the 
reader is referred to the respective articles in Floy and Haller, Bib. 
Med. 



OF MpDICAIv HISTORY 


319 


CHAPTER X. 

Account of the sect of the Vitalists—Van Helmont—Stahl, 
his system—Hoffmann, his system, pathology, influence of 
his doctrines—Solidism—Baglivi—Disciples of Stahl. 

While the medical world was thus divided between 
the rival opinions of the Chymists and the Mathemati¬ 
cians, a new sect was gradually rising up, which, al¬ 
though in its commencement it was perhaps equally re¬ 
mote from the principles of true science, became by 
successive improvements freed from many of its excep¬ 
tionable parts, and finally triumphed over both the con¬ 
tending parties. It originated with Van Helmont, 
who commenced his philosophical career as a disciple 
of the chymical school of Paracelsus. He was a man 
of a powerful mind, but with a considerable mixture of 
enthusiasm, and even of fanaticism, who became dis¬ 
gusted with the Galenic mode of studying and prac¬ 
tising medicine, and embraced the bolder and more 
efficacious system of the Chymists. But he made this 
great and essential addition to their doctrine,—that the 
changes which are produced in the body by its own 
spontaneous actions, as well as by the operation of 
remedies, are under the influence of a specific agent, 
which resides in or is attached to the living system, 
and to which he gave the name of archeus * 

It would not be easy to give any exact definition of 
the term, or to assign the precise meaning which was 
attached to it. Sometimes he seems to consider it as 
an abstract principle or power distinct from the ma¬ 
terial part of the universe; sometimes as a species of 
element, and at other times as a certain modification 
of matter which acquires peculiar qualities or agencies.f 

* He probably took the term from Paracelsus, who speaks of it as a 
new word which he had introduced into medicine; Chirurg. Mag. tract. 
2. cap. 15. 

t See the section of his “Ortus Medicinae,” entitled “Archeu9 
Faber;” also Castelli’s lexicon, “Archeus.” 



320 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


In consequence of his early training in the chymical 
school, he occasionally speaks of the archeus as a 
kind of ferment, and it would appear that he resolves 
all the operations of the living system and all the func¬ 
tions into certain fermentative processes effected by the 
action of the archeus. In short, the archeus was the 
convenient and never-failing aid to which he had re¬ 
course for the purpose of explaining all the actions of 
the system either in health or in disease; it was equally 
the cause of digestion and of sanguification, of fever 
and of inflammation. Van Helmont, both from the 
peculiar turn of his mind and from the course of study 
to which he had devoted himself, was little qualified to 
watch over the phenomena of disease, or to discriminate 
between the nice shades which so frequently serve to 
characterize the different morbid affections. Accord¬ 
ingly, it does not appear that he introduced any im¬ 
provement into the practice of medicine, or indeed 
into any of the collateral departments; he is solely en¬ 
titled to be noticed in this place as having laid the 
foundation for a new series of opinions, which were 
gradually moulded into one of the most important 
theories which had occupied the attention either of the 
physician or the physiologist.^ 

Although, strictly speaking, Van Helmont must be 
regarded as the individual who first stated, in express 
terms, the great and important principle, that the living 
body possesses powers of a specific nature different 
from those which belong to inanimate matter, yet so 
much mysticism and error were mixed with it, that it 
produced little effect on the opinions of his contempo¬ 
raries. Nearly half a century had elapsed after his 
death, during which time the physicians and physiolo¬ 
gists were still defending the doctrines of the Chymists 
and the Mathematicians each against their respective 

XEloy, in loco. Haller. Bib. Med. lib. 8, t. ii. p. 518 et seq. Enfield, 
v. ii. p. 458-60. Goulin, Enc. Meth. Medecine, in loco. Sprengel, sect. 
13. ch. 3; this author gives us a very minute analysis of the writings and 
opinions of Van Helmont. Although his absurdities are not concealed, 
I conceive that the account is somewhat too favourable. Hutchinson’s 
Biog. Med. v. i. p. 414-423. Fournier, Biog. Univ. in loco. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


321 

antagonists, when a new impulse was given to medical 
theory by the appearance of the celebrated Stahl, who 
was born at Anspach in the year 1660. His education 
was almost exclusively occupied with the study of 
medicine. At the age of twenty-three he became a 
public lecturer, and from this time he bore a conspicu¬ 
ous rank in his profession, both as a teacher and a 
practitioner, during the remainder of his life. He was 
brought up in the principles of the chymical school, 
and hence his attention was early turned to the study 
of chymistry, in which science he effected a still greater 
revolution of opinion than in that of medicine. He 
possessed a character and disposition well adapted to 
become the founder of a new sect. He had great 
activity of mind united to great industry; he was zeal¬ 
ous and enthusiastic, at the same time inclined to 
fanaticism and mystery; he was bold, confident, and 
arrogant, fully impressed with the importance of his 
own opinions, and disposed to place little reliance on 
those of others. His arrogance, however, probably in¬ 
duced him to enter upon investigations which he might 
not have attempted had he contented himself with fol¬ 
lowing the track of his predecessors, and to his de¬ 
clared contempt for the learning of his contemporaries 
we may consider ourselves as in part at least indebted 
for his original speculations, and for the actual addi¬ 
tions which he made to our knowledge. This con¬ 
tempt and arrogance were carried to such an extent, 
that he professed to set little or no value upon any of 
those studies that are usually associated with medicine, 
even that of anatomy; and he appeared to pay no 
regard either to the assertions or the arguments of his 
contemporaries, when they opposed any of his favourite 
doctrines. Besides his ardour in the pursuit of medical 
science, he appears to have had a decided turn for 
metaphysical reasoning, and in the formation of his 
theories he was probably influenced by the doctrines of 
Descartes, which were then embraced by many of the 
learned men of Europe. 


21 


322 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

Stahl saw the errors and deficiencies of both the 
prevailing theories; he therefore laid it down as a 
fundamental position, that neither chymical nor me¬ 
chanical reasoning is applicable to the phenomena of 
life, and he consequently bestowed all his attention on 
the study of what he termed vital actions. These 
actions he refers to the operation of a principle which 
he styles anima, and which, in many respects, resembles 
the archeus of Van Helmont.* The basis of the 
Stahlian doctrine is similar to that of the Cartesian 
system, that matter is necessarily and essentially pas¬ 
sive or inert, and that all its active properties or powers 
are derived from an immaterial animating principle, 
which is superinduced upon it or added to it. It is by 
the operation of this spiritual principle upon the ma¬ 
terial organs of the body that all the vital functions are 
produced, and it is on the absence or presence of this 
principle that the difference between the living and 
dead matter essentially depends. Stahl observed with 
considerable acuteness the action which the mind exer¬ 
cises over the body, and he proved that these effects 
c-ould not be referred either to a mere chymical or me¬ 
chanical agent. This point, clear as it now appears to 
us, had not been distinctly recognized before his time, 
or rather, it may be said that the contrary opinion 
formed the basis of both the prevailing theories. But 
although he laid down this great truth, and established 
it by incontrovertible arguments, there is considerable 
obscurity respecting the nature of this immaterial or 
superintending agent; and when we enter upon the 
detail of his description, we become involved in a 
labyrinth of metaphysical subtilety. We are told that 
the anima superintends and directs every part of the 
animal economy from its first formation; that it pre¬ 
vents or repairs injuries, counteracts the effects of 
morbid causes, or tends to remove them when actually 
present, yet that we are unconscious of its existence; 
and that while it manifests every attribute of reason 


Physiol, sect. x. numb. 3. sect. 13, et alibi. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


323 


and design, it is devoid of these qualities, and is in fact 
a necessary and unintelligent agent. He examined with 
much attention the nature of the different functions, 
their relation to the anima, and their dependence upon 
it; he endeavoured to explain the effect of organization, 
and the mode in which organization operates in pro¬ 
ducing these functions. In these investigations he dis¬ 
plays considerable acuteness, and he contributed ma¬ 
terially to advance our knowledge of the laws of 
vitality; but still his ideas are, in many respects, con¬ 
fused and indistinct, and he is more disposed to enter 
into subtile disquisitions respecting the nature of his 
supposed principle, than to examine the actual phe¬ 
nomena of the animal economy, and from them to 
deduce his general laws.f 

Contrary to what is frequently the case, the hypo¬ 
thesis of Stahl had a considerable influence upon his 
practice. As all the actions of the system are under 
the control of the anima, and as the office of this prin¬ 
ciple is to preserve the system in its perfect state, the 
duty of the physician is reduced to the mere superin¬ 
tendence of its actions, generally to co-operate with its 
efforts, or if they should be irregular or injurious, which 
we are to suppose is seldom the case, to endeavour to 
restrain or counteract them. These views tended to 
repress the energy of the practitioner still more than the 
pathological doctrines of Hippocrates, inasmuch as the 
anima of Stahl was conceived to exercise a more direct 
influence over the operations of the economy than the 
<pu<n$ of Hippocrates, which was simply a general ex¬ 
pression of these actions, and which, according to cir¬ 
cumstances, might be either beneficial or injurious to 
the system. As a specimen of the mode in which Stahl 
applied his theory to practice, we may select his doc¬ 
trine respecting plethora. He supposed that the body 
had a general tendency to the plethoric state, because 

t Haller, Bib. Med. lib. xi. t. iii. p. 575 et seq. Eloy, in loco. 
Cullen, Preface to his “First Lines,” p. 12-18. Sprengel, sect. 15. ch. 
i. t. v. p. 195-270. Blumenbach, §. 420. Thompsons Cullen, v. 1. p. 
164-132. Renauldin, Biog. Univ. in loco. Cuvier, Hist, des Scien. Nat. 
t. i. p. 216. 



324 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

he observed that spontaneous evacuations of various 
kinds occasionally took place, and these he assumed 
were produced by the provident care of the anima, in 
order to remove a plethora which must have previously 
existed so as to render them necessary. An important 
office of the superintendent principle is therefore to 
produce the necessary evacuations, in order to prevent 
or remove this plethora, and hence it becomes the duty 
of the practitioner to watch over the evacuations, and 
to promote them if too scanty, or to repress them if too 
abundant.* 

The theory of Stahl, so far as it tended to fix the 
attention of the vital actions of the system, and to over¬ 
throw the mechanical hypotheses which had so long 
and so generally prevailed, may be considered as hav¬ 
ing' performed an essential service to the science of 
medicine. The appearance of metaphysical acuteness 
which it presented, independent of its real merits, ac¬ 
quired for it a degree of popularity in an age when the 
attention had been particularly directed to subjects of 
this description. It certainly produced a considerable 
revolution both in medical language and in medical 
opinions; and although Stahl had but few followers, 
who received his doctrines in their full extent, it was 
partially embraced by many of the most intelligent and 
learned men of that period, and it has ultimately had a 
great and excessive influence on the state of the science. 
Independently of the defects inherent in the system 
itself, the spirit of inquiry was now so widely diffused, 
and the importance of patiently investigating the phe¬ 
nomena of the animal economy was so generally admit¬ 
ted, that the merits of all theories were more strictly 
canvassed, and subjected to more severe examination. 
From the same combination of causes, a variety of 
rival hypotheses were produced, which tended to pre¬ 
vent the exclusive adoption of any one of them in pref¬ 
erence to the rest; and the same state of things was 
still further promoted by the great number of medical 

* Pathol, pars ii. sect. i. mem. 2. §. 3 et alibi. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


325 


schools, which were established in all the great cities 
of Europe, each of which was anxious to advance its 
claim to the public attention. 

We have given to Stahl the great merit of having 
clearly perceived and decisively established the import¬ 
ant truth, that the operations of the animal economy 
cannot be explained by the laws either of chymistry or 
of mechanics, and that we must therefore have recourse 
to something of a specific nature, peculiar to the living 
system itself. Yet, although he succeeded in pointing 
out the insufficiency of the existing theories, the one 
which he substituted in their place, the action of the 
superintending anima, was no less difficult to compre¬ 
hend, was equally hypothetical, and equally liable to 
objections. His genius was not of a kind which was 
adapted to slow and patient investigation, and we ac¬ 
cordingly find, that he either defends his system upon 
general grounds, or rests satisfied with merely pointing 
out the errors and deficiencies of his adversaries. A 
powerful and sagacious mind was still wanting, which 
might carefully examine into the nature and operations 
of the powers that exclusively belong to the living 
body, and, after ascertaining the facts, might general¬ 
ize them, and thus deduce the correct theory. This 
was a process of much labour and difficulty, one which 
could only be accomplished by slow degrees, and which 
it might be expected would require the co-operation of 
various individuals. 

Of those whom we should be disposed to regard as 
having mainly contributed to this gradual progression, 
the first in point of time, as well as of celebrity, is 
Hoffmann. He was the contemporary of Stahl, and 
his colleague in the university of Halle; he may be 
considered likewise as his rival, for although they both 
contributed so considerably to advance our knowledge 
of the animal economy, and, to a certain extent, by 
pursuing a similar mode of reasoning, yet they were 
persons of very different habits and dispositions, and 
attempted to attain the same object by very different 


326 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

means. Hoffmann was a prolix and discursive writer, 
whose collected works occupy many folio volumes, and 
the very titles of which, as detailed by Haller, extend 
to no less than thirty-eight quarto pages.* It must 
therefore be supposed that they contain much that is of 
little value, and exhibit many marks of the hasty man¬ 
ner in which they were composed. Yet he appears to 
have been a diligent observer and collector of facts, 
and therefore, notwithstanding the repulsive aspect of 
his works, they are highly estimated and frequently 
referred to. He attended much more to the details of 
practice than his colleague, and, indeed, the basis of 
his great work, “Systema Medicinse Rationalist is es¬ 
sentially practical, in which his physiological and path¬ 
ological doctrines are, for the most part, introduced in 
ap incidental manner, as supporting or elucidating his 
practical observations. Of the nature or details of his 
practice it will not be necessary to enter into any min¬ 
ute examination. It did not differ very materially 
from that of his contemporaries, although the circum¬ 
stances of his being less exclusively attached to any 
single hypothesis has rendered him more disposed to 
take a candid and unprejudiced view of the various 
points which would necessarily fall under his observa¬ 
tion. In his leading doctrines he must be classed with 
the mathematical physicians, but at the same time he 
adopts many of the opinions of the Chymists, and in¬ 
deed not unfrequently derives his indications from the 
supposed chymical condition of the fluids. But the 
great and important addition which Hoffmann made 
to theory, both medical and physiological, is the dis¬ 
tinct manner in which he refers to the operations of the 
nervous system, and its influence on the phenomena of 
life. Many of the actions which Stahl ascribes to the 
action of his hypothetical principle, the anima, Hoff¬ 
mann explained by referring them to the nervous in¬ 
fluence, a physical power no less real than that of grav¬ 
ity or chymical affinity, but of a specific nature and 


Haller, Bib. Med. t. iii. p. 536-576. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 327 

operating by its own laws, the knowledge of which is 
to be acquired by observation and experiment.f 

But whatever merit Hoffmann may have had as a 
practitioner, his reputation with posterity must princi¬ 
pally rest upon his merits as a pathologist. Although, 
as we have stated above, he considered the fluids to be 
occasionally the primary seat of disease, yet in most 
cases he conceives it to originate in an affection of the 
solids. In order to explain this affection, he assumed 
that what he terms the moving fibre possesses a cer¬ 
tain degree of action or tone, which constitutes its 
natural state, and is necessary for the performance of 
its functions. Various circumstances, as well external 
as internal, were supposed either to increase or dimin¬ 
ish this tone; if it were increased beyond its true limit, 
the state of spasm is the result; if it were unduly 
diminshed, the contrary state of atony was 
produced. This celebrated theory, which, under 
various modifications, entered so largely into the 
speculations of most of the pathologists of the 
seventeenth century, cannot be maintained in all its 
parts as it was detailed by Hoffmann; it must, however, 
be admitted that it made a considerable approach to a 
correct view of the subject, and that it may be re¬ 
garded as the germ from which the more mature doc¬ 
trines of his successors immediately emanated. It has 
been supposed that he borrowed it from the constricted 
and relaxed fibre of the ancients; but even if we admit 
that this may have furnished him with the first hint, 
it was so far new-modelled and extended by him as to 
deserve the merit of originality.^ 

This hypothesis of the nature of the moving fibre, 
together with the more extensive influence which the 
nervous system was imagined to exercise over the vari¬ 
ous operations of the animal economy, may be consid¬ 
ered as forming the basis of both the physiology and 

t Thompson’s Cullen, p. 195, 6. Cuvier, t. i. ubi supra. 

j Cullen, in the preface to his “First Lines,” bears ample testimony 
to the value and importance of Hoffmann’s physiological speculations, 
and acknowledges the use which he had made of them in the formation 
of his own hypotheses. 



328 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

the pathology of Hoffmann. Unfortunately for the 
fame of this writer, in consequence of the multiplicity 
of his works, and the hasty manner in which they were 
composed, it is very difficult to obtain a consistent or 
connected view of his theory; but, upon the whole I 
conceive that he is entitled to the merit of having ma¬ 
terially advanced our knowledge of the laws of the ani¬ 
mal economy, and still more, of having pointed out the 
track which might be successfully pursued by others 
for the further advancement of this knowledge. With 
respect to the works of Hoffmann it may be further 
remarked, that as in the course of his experience he 
gradually enlarged and corrected his pathological doc¬ 
trines, and continued to publish them from time to 
time in detached portions, but without giving them in 
a condensed or abstracted form, we frequently meet 
with what appear to be inconsistencies and contradic¬ 
tions, and are obliged to collect his opinions rather 
from inferences and from indirect remarks, than from 
any clear and explicit statement of them.* 

In giving an account of the pathology of Hoffmann, 
I have somewhat anticipated an important point of 
medical theory to which we must now revert. I have 
had occasion in various parts of this history to notice, 
that through all the succession of opinions, from the 
time of Hippocrates to the period at which we are now 
arrived, with a very few exceptions, the hypotheses 
were all founded upon the humoral pathology. This 
opinion was maintained equally by the Mathematicians, 
the Chymists, and the Metaphysicians. The changes 
that were produced in the system, whether mechanical 
or chymical, were equally supposed to take their origin 
from the fluids, while the Metaphysicians imagined 
that it was upon the fluids that this immaterial superin- 


* Haller, Bib. Med. lib. x. §. 877. t. iv. p. 536 et seq. Nouv. Diet. 
Hist, in loco. Eloy, in loco. Cullen, preface to his “First Lines,” p. 
18-25. Sprengel, sect. 15. ch. 2. Blutnenbach, §. 4x9. Goulin, Enc. 
Meth. Medecine, in loco. Thomson’s Life of Cullen, v. i. p. 182-200. 
Biog. Univ. in loco. Of his works the following may be selected as 
the most original and valuable:—Systema Medicinae Rationalis; Medi- 
cina Consultatoria; Opuscula Med. Phys.; Consult et Respons. Cent.; 
Phathologia Generalis; Therapia Generalis; Semeiologia; Philosophia 
Corporis hum. vivi. 




OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


329 


tending principle exercised its action. We may regard 
the publication of Glisson’s treatise, “De Ventriculo et 
Intestinis,” which appeared in 1671, as having laid the 
foundation for the change of opinion which afterward 
took place respecting this doctrine. It was in this 
work that the hypothesis of muscular irritability was 
originally brought forward, a specific property, which 
is supposed to be attached to the living fibre, and from 
which is deduced its peculiar power of contraction.f 
But the first writer who systematically opposed the 
theory of the humoral pathology was Baglivi. He was 
born near the conclusion of the seventeenth century, 
and after rising to early eminence in his profession, 
and acquiring a high reputation for his sagacity in the 
treatment of disease, and for the assiduity which he 
displayed in the acquisition of medical knowledge, was 
prematurely cut off at the age of thirty-fourj He 
proceeded upon the Hippocratean plan of watching 
attentively and accurately describing the phenomena 
of disease; but he differed from him as to their primary 
seat, rejecting the principle of the humoral pathology, 
and placing the causes of them in the altered condition 
of the solids. His account of the nature of the solids, 
and the actions of what he terms the moving fibres, is 
by no means comformable to our modern notions on 
the subject, and may be pronounced to be incorrect; but 
the opinion that the fluids are affected secondarily, in 
consequence of a previous affection of the solids, was a 
great and important point of theory, which has been 
gradually gaining ground since the time that it was 
first promulgated by Baglivi, and may be regarded, 
with certain modifications, as the current hypothesis of 
the present day. The doctrine of solidism had, indeed, 
no direct or immediate effect upon the practice of medi¬ 
cine, but by drawing the attention more to the state 
of the muscular and nervous systems than to that of 

t See especially the fifth chapter of the treatise entitled “De fibris 
in genere.” Eloy, in loco. 

tEloy, in loco. Haller, Bibl. Med. lib. xn. §. 954- t. iv. p. 197 et 
seq. Goulin, Encyc. Meth. Medecine, in loco. Chaussier et Adelon, 
Biog. Univ. in loco. 



330 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


the fluids, it tended to correct many of the erroneous 
opinions which had previously prevailed respecting the 
actual condition of the system when labouring under 
disease, and in this way powerfully contributed to im¬ 
prove our knowledge of the relative state of the differ¬ 
ent parts of the animal economy, and of the operation 
of remedies upon it. The gradual subversion of the 
humoral pathology may also be regarded as a remote 
cause of the favourable reception with which the doc¬ 
trines of Hoffmann were received, while the attention 
which he paid to the action of the nervous system con¬ 
tributed, in its turn, still further to favour the theory 
of solidism, in opposition to that of the humoral path¬ 
ology. 

The theory of Stahl, notwithstanding its defects and 
inconsistencies, was calculated to make a considerable 
impression upon the public mind at the time when it 
was advanced, and it accordingly met with numerous 
supporters. It clearly pointed out the inadequacy of 
all the previous hypotheses, founded merely on mechan¬ 
ical principles, to explain the phenomena of vitality, 
while it was powerfully recommended by its simplicity; 
and perhaps even its metaphysical aspect might render 
it not the less acceptable to his countrymen, who were 
deeply interested in the speculations of Leibnitz, and 
the controversy to which they had given rise. It was 
not, indeed, generally embraced in its full extent; but 
with certain modifications it remained the favourite 
doctrine with many of the Germans, until it was gradu¬ 
ally superseded by the more correct views of Hoff¬ 
mann, and still further by the powerful and command¬ 
ing genius of Haller. 

Of the followers of Stahl, who adopted his opinions 
with the fewest alterations, we may select the names of 
Juncker and Alberti, who were both of them profes¬ 
sors in the university of Halle, of which they contri¬ 
buted for many years to support the reputation which it 
had acquired under their illustrious predecessors. They 
were both of them voluminous writers, and they de- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


331 


voted a considerable part of their labours to expound¬ 
ing and illustrating the principles of the Stahlian sys¬ 
tem. But their works being more theoretical than 
practical, and being intended rather for the purpose of 
defending certain opinions than for the acquisition of 
knowledge, are now sunk into oblivion, or are merely 
referred to as historical records of an hypothesis which 
formerly engaged so much attention. 

With these remarks on the theory of the Vitalists I 
shall close the review of the state of medical science 
during the sixteenth century. Up to this period I 
have adopted the chronological arrangement, and by 
pursuing this method have been enabled without diffi¬ 
culty to trace the successive stages of the progress of 
our art. But, as we approach nearer to our own times, 
the number of subjects which claim our notice are so 
multiplied, that it will be necessary to continue the his¬ 
torical sketch upon a different plan. Disregarding 
therefore, to a certain extent, the mere order of time, I 
shall, in succession, give an account of those individ¬ 
uals who have acquired the greatest degree of celebrity, 
endeavouring at the same time to class them according 
to the opinions which they adopted, pointing out their 
connection with each other, and with the general state 
of medical science.* 

* It may be necessary to observe that I have already somewhat 
deviated from the chronological arrangement in considering Hoffmann 
and Stahl as belonging to the seventeenth century, although it was not 
until near the close ot it, in the year 1693 and 1694. that they entered 
upon their offices as professors at Halle. But by admitting of this 
irregularity, I have made the division to correspond more nearly with 
the changes which took place in the state of medical science. 



332 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


CHAPTER XI. 


Introductory remarks—General progress of medical science— 
Boerhaave, character of his writings, his pathology— 
Gaubius—Gorter—Haller, his character, pathological doc¬ 
trines, his disciples, his opponents—Whytt—Semi-animists 
—Sauvages—Cullen, his pathology and practice, his pupils 
—Brown, his system—Darwin, his system. 

From the revival of letters to the commencement of 
the eighteenth century, including a period of between 
two and three hundred years, the great aim and object 
had been to apply to medicine the same scientific prin¬ 
ciples which had been found successful in the advance¬ 
ment of the other departments of philosophy. The 
most distinguished medical writers of that period had 
therefore employed themselves rather in collecting 
opinions and in reasoning upon them, than in examin¬ 
ing into the grounds on which these opinions had been 
formed, or inquiring in what degree they were appli¬ 
cable to the explanation of the phenomena of the animal 
economy. For the most part, as I have had occasion 
to remark, they failed in their direct object; at the 
same time, however, a considerable body of informa¬ 
tion was gradually acquired, and the views which now 
began to be unfolded in consequence of the pathological 
speculations of Hoffmann, and the practical observa¬ 
tions of Sydenham and the modern Hippocrateans, led 
to the establishment of the same spirit of inductive in¬ 
vestigation in medicine which had been for some time 
adopted in the other departments of natural science. 
We have passed over the age of mere learning, and we 
now enter upon that of observation and experiment. 
Scholastic disquisitions were completely disregarded, 
abstract theory was rapidly falling into disrepute, and 
hypotheses were no longer considered as deserving of 
attention, unless they professed to be derived from the 


OB MEDICAL HISTORY 


333 


generalization of facts. The necessary result of this 
state of things has been to detach the mind from the 
arbitrary influence of theory, to diminish the authority 
of great names, and to induce the inquirers after truth 
to rest more upon their own exertions, than upon the 
authority of others. We have, indeed, still to lament 
the errors and perversions of the human mind, to wit¬ 
ness the attempts of ignorance and arrogance to usurp 
the place which is due to modest desert and patient 
research; but such attempts, for the most part, have ob¬ 
tained only temporary success, and after an ephemeral 
celebrity have been consigned to their merited con¬ 
tempt. In the mean time notwithstanding these occa¬ 
sional interruptions, the progress of knowledge has 
been rapidly and steadily advancing. Experiments, 
well contrived and patiently conducted, have been per¬ 
formed in every department of physiological and medi¬ 
cal science; observations have been made with more 
minuteness and recorded with more accuracy; our im¬ 
proved knowledge of chymistry has enabled us to intro¬ 
duce the most important reforms into pharmacy, while 
the discovery of various new articles of the materia 
medica has given us additional and powerful means of 
opposing the progress of disease. 

While Stahl and Hoffmann were promulgating their 
doctrines in the university of Halle, the celebrated 
Boerhaave was teaching medicine with equal zeal, and, 
we may venture to say, with more success, at Leyden.* 
Boerhaave was originally educated for the profession 
of theology, but owing to some doctrinal scruples he 
fortunately relinquished his intention, and devoted him¬ 
self to the study of medicine in all its branches. There 
are few examples, either in ancient or modern times, 
of any individual who arrived at higher eminence, both 
in general knowledge and in the departments more 
immediately connected with his profession-. His ac¬ 
quaintance with botany and with chymistry were such 
as to enable him to teach both these sciences with the 


Boerhaave was elected to the chair of medicine in 1709 . 



334 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


greatest success; while his lectures and his writings on 
medicine, both theoretical and practical, were long con¬ 
sidered as standards of excellence. He had a mind 
and character peculiarly well adapted for his situation 
and the age in which he lived, when a variety of new 
facts and new hypotheses were brought into view, and 
when it required a consummate degree of judgment to 
weigh the opposing evidence, and decide between the 
merits of the contending parties. His moral qualities 
were no less admirable than his intellectual acquire¬ 
ments ; and if we add to these his elegance as a writer, 
his eloquence as a lecturer, and his entire devotedness 
to his profession, we shall be at no loss to account for 
the celebrity which he enjoyed during his lifetime, and 
the reputation which he left behind him. 

Boerhaave has been compared to Galen, and it may 
be asserted that he will not lose by the comparison. 
If Galen possessed more genius, Boerhaave possessed 
more judgment; while in their scientific acquirements, 
and in the extent of their information, it would not be 
easy to decide between them. They were both emi¬ 
nently skilled in the art of availing themselves of the 
knowledge of their contemporaries in all the branches 
of science, of applying it to the elucidation of their 
particular department, and of modelling and combining 
into a well-digested system all the scattered materials 
which they obtained from so great a variety of sources. 
In the stability of their systems, however, we observe a 
remarkable difference; for while Galen’s doctrines were 
implicity adopted for many centuries, the system of 
Boerhaave, notwithstanding its real merits and the ap¬ 
plause which it obtained during the life of its inventor, 
shortly after his death was assailed from numerous 
quarters, and was unable to maintain its ground. The 
age in which Boerhaave lived was not one of authority, 
but of investigation, and the enlightened spirit which 
pervades his own works tended, in no small degree, to 
foster that taste for inquiry which led his contempor- 


01? MEDICAIv HISTORY 


335 


aries not to rest satisfied with his theories, however 
beautiful might be their aspect, and however happily 
they might appear to explain the phenomena of life, if 
they were found to be based upon principles which 
were themselves conjectural and gratuitous. 

The great object of Boerhaave, in the formation of 
his system, was to collect all that was valuable from 
preceding writers, and by means of these materials to 
erect a system which should be truly eclectic. The 
basis of his doctrines is, in a great measure, mechani¬ 
cal, derived from the hypothesis of Bellini and Pit- 
cairne; but he unites with this certain parts of the 
humoral pathology, and adopts some of the opinions of 
Hoffmann. To these he added various original obser¬ 
vations, by which he has given ample proof of his tal¬ 
ents as a sagacious practitioner. His language is re¬ 
markably perspicuous, and his reasoning, if we admit 
his premises, is fair and conclusive. But the grand 
error of Boerhaave consisted in his depending more 
upon opinions than upon observations; in his endeav¬ 
ouring to form a system which should be composed of 
the united speculations of others, rather than to ascer¬ 
tain the correctness of the principles from which these 
speculations were deduced. His system accordingly 
met with the fate of all such as are built upon hypothe¬ 
sis; it could not stand the test of experiment and ob¬ 
servation, and, notwithstanding the efforts of some of 
Boerhaave’s pupils, who were zealously attached to 
their master, it was generally discarded in no long 
period after the death of its inventor. But although 
the system of Boerhaave may have yielded to the more 
perfect and enlarged theories of his successors, he 
must ever be regarded as one to whom the science of 
medicine is deeply indebted. His Institutions and his 
Aphorisms would alone serve to immortalize his repu¬ 
tation as a correct observer and a sagacious practi¬ 
tioner; and if we compare them with any contemporary 
performance, which is the fair method of judging the 


336 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

merits of the works of science, we cannot fail to recog¬ 
nise their own superiority.* * * § 

In forming his system, Boerhaave was not unmind¬ 
ful of the doctrines of Hoffmann, and particularly of 
the influence which the brain and nerves exercise over 
the operations of the animal economy. But although 
he introduces it on certain occasions, and in some in¬ 
stances allows it to act a prominent part,f yet he was 
by no means fully aware of the extent of its power. 
This indeed may be considered as the radical defect of 
his pathological doctrines; he regards the solids too 
much in the light of mere mechanical agents, without 
sufficiently taking into account those properties which 
specifically distinguish them from inanimate bodies. 
This deficiency was, to a certain extent, supplied by his 
nephew Kauw Boerhaave,$ and by his favourite pupil 
and successor Gaubius,§ who introduced the agency of 
the nervous system in many cases where it had been 
omitted by Boerhaave himself. They were both of 
them men of considerable talents and acquirements, and 
the improvements which they made in medical theory 
were of real value. The writings of Gaubius, espec¬ 
ially his Nosology and his Institutions of Pathology, 
were long held in high estimation, and were employed 
as text-books in the medical schools. || In the same 
connection we may mention the name of Gorter, an 
eminent professor and practitioner of Harderwyc, who, 
while, like Boerhaave, he adopted the essential parts of 
the mechanical theories of his predecessors, made con¬ 
siderable use of the agency of what he termed the vital 
force in explaining many of the operations of the ani- 


* Haller, Bib. Med. lib. xii. t. iv. p. 142 et seq. Eloy, in loco. 
Cullen, Preface to his “First Lines,” p. 25-35. Hutchinson’s Biog. Med. 
v. i. p. 82 et seq. Nouv. Diet. Hist, in loco. Thomson’s Life of Cullen, 
v. i. p. 200-217. Blumenbach, Introd. §. 418. Goulin, Encyc. Meth. 
Medecine, in loco. Biographie Universelle, in loco. 

t See particularly his work entitled “Prselectiones de Morbis Nerv¬ 
orum.” 

X Thomson’s Cullen, v. i. p. 219. 

§ Ibid. v. i. p. 220. 

II Haller, Bibl. Anat. t. ii. p. 166, 7. Eloy, in loco. Aikin’s Gen. 
Biog. in loco. Thomson’s Cullen, v. i. p. 220, 1. Desgenettes, Biog. 
Univ. in loco. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


3 37 


mal economy.^ The writings of Gorter are very numer¬ 
ous, and prove him to have been an industrious cul¬ 
tivator of medical science, while his great practical 
work, entitled “Compendium Medicinse,” indicates a 
talent for correct observation, and an accurate dis¬ 
crimination of morbid symptoms. 

But the great support and ornament of the Boer- 
haavian school was Van Swieten. He was born at 
Leyden in the last year of the seventeenth century, and 
was one of the most favoured and meritorious of the 
pupils of Boerhaave. In consequence of his theolog¬ 
ical opinions not coinciding with those of the state re¬ 
ligion, he was expelled from the university of his native 
city, in which he held a professorship, and accepted an 
invitation from Maria Theresa to the court of Vienna. 
Here honours and distinctions of all kinds were heaped 
upon him; but these he amply repaid by the unremit¬ 
ting attention with which he devoted himself to the 
medical school of that metropolis. Of the high repu¬ 
tation which it has since enjoyed he may be said to 
have laid the foundation, while, by the publication of 
his Commentaries on the Aphorisms of Boerhaave, he 
demonstrated, at the same time, the high respect which 
he retained for his preceptor, and the extent of his 
own information on all subjects connected with medical 
science. The Commentaries of Van Swieten contain 
a large and valuable collection of practical observa¬ 
tions, partly the result of the author’s own experience, 
and partly derived from his extensive knowledge of 
books. He adopted the theory of Boerhaave with little 
alteration, and in this respect the work must be re¬ 
garded as fundamentally defective; but the great body 
of facts which it contains, detailed as they are in a clear 
and perspicuous style, will always ensure it a place in 
the library of the medical student.* 


HH/oy, in loco. Haller, Ribl. Anat, t. ii. p. 169,7?- 
p. 314-16. Thomson’s Cullen, v. i. p. 218. Renauldtn, 

'* Eloy, in loco. Nauche, Biog. Univ. in loco. 

22 


Sprengel, t. v. 
Biog. Univ. in 



33 & A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

The intimate acquaintance which subsists between 
the doctrines of pathology and an acquaintance with 
the laws of the animal economy in its healthy and per¬ 
fect state, makes it necessary for me to give some ac¬ 
count of an individual, who, though not a practitioner 
of medicine, contributed perhaps more to our knowl¬ 
edge of the nature of disease than any one who has 
passed under our review. I refer to the great name of 
Haller, who has been not unaptly termed the father of 
modern physiology. He was the pupil of Boerhaave, 
and imbibed from him his thirst for knowledge, his cor¬ 
rect judgment, his undeviating candour, his unblem¬ 
ished integrity, and in short, all the intellectual and 
moral qualities which we have admired in the profes¬ 
sor of Leyden. But to these qualities Haller added a 
more extensive and original genius, which led him 
never to rest upon the unexamined opinions of others, 
and a clearness of conception, which taught him, both 
in his language and in his mode of reasoning, to avoid 
all ambiguous and undefined terms, and all irrelevant 
arguments. He possessed a mind at the same time com¬ 
prehensive and correct, equally adapted for discovering 
new paths to knowledge, and for investigating those 
which had been previously entered upon by others. 
The innate powers of the components of the body, 
which had been imperfectly seen by Glisson and by 
Hoffmann, were examined by Haller with his charac¬ 
teristic acuteness, and the result of his long and well- 
directed research was rewarded by the establishment of 
his theory of irritability and sensibility, as specific prop¬ 
erties attached respectively to the two great systems of 
the animal frame, the muscular and the nervous, to 
which, either separately or conjointly, may be referred 
all the phenomena of the living body. But perhaps a 
still more important service which Haller rendered to 
science was the example which he held out of carefully 
abstaining from all opinions founded merely upon spec¬ 
ulative grounds, and of deducing his general principles 
exclusively from experiment and observation. He 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


339 


gave an impulse to science no less by the actual dis¬ 
coveries which he made, than by the spirit with which 
he conducted his researches, so that we may regard the 
publication of his Elements of Physiology as having 
introduced a new era into medical science.f 

It would be incompatible both with the immediate 
subject of this essay, and with the limits to which it is 
necessarily restricted, to give a detailed account of the 
controversies and discussions to which the theory of 
Haller gave rise. Notwithstanding its merits, and the 
evidence by which it was supported, it was opposed, 
either in its full extent or in certain of its parts, by 
many individuals of high respectability; while on the 
contrary, various experiments were instituted, by which 
his conclusions were confirmed and his principles ex¬ 
tended. Among those who were the most successful in 
these researches I may select the names of Zimmer¬ 
man, J Caldani,§ Fontana,|| Tissot,fl Zinn,* * * § ** and Vers- 
chuir. The last of these physiologists particularly dis¬ 
tinguished himself by his experiments on the contract¬ 
ility of the arteries,ft a point which had been left un¬ 
decided by Haller, but which formed a most important 
addition to the theory of the action of the vessels, and 
which had previously been rather assumed as what was 
probable, than deduced from any ascertained facts. 

Whytt and Porterfield may perhaps be considered as 
the most powerful of the opponents of Haller. They 
were natives of Scotland, and during the earlier part 
of the last century, were residents in the metropolis of 
that kingdom, and bore a conspicuous part in the 
scientific institutions for which it was so justly cele¬ 
brated. The former of them was professor of medi¬ 
cine in the university of Edinburgh, at the time when it 

t Elye, Mem. Acad. Scien. 1777. Henry’s Life of Hallen Spren- 
gel, sect. 15, ch. iii. Aikin’s Gen. Biog. in loco. Thomson s Cullen, v. 
i. p. 221-240. Cuvier, Biographie Universelle, in loco. Dewar, Brewster’s 

Encyc. art. “Haller.” Blumenbach, Introd. §. 468. Goulin, Enc. Meth. 
Medecine, in loco. 

t De Irritabilitate. 

§ Instit. Physiol. 

|| In Haller, sur la Nature Sens, et Irnt. t. 111. 

If In Haller, sur la Nature Sens, et Irrit. t. in. 

** Exper. circa Corp. Cal. etc. 

ft De Arter, et Yen. Vi Irrit. 




340 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


was rapidly advancing to that high reputation which it 
afterward more fully attained, under the genius of his 
illustrious successor Cullen. They opposed that part 
of the theory of Haller which ascribes all the actions 
of the living system to certain powers necessarily con¬ 
nected with the material parts of the frame, as well as 
to the separation of these actions into the two distinct 
powers of irritability and sensibility.* The contro¬ 
versy which Whytt carried on with Haller was con¬ 
ducted with acuteness and ability, but it manifests a 
degree of acrimony which it is impossible not to regret, 
particularly as occurring in an individual who was 
otherwise so much entitled to our respect. And this 
is more especially the case when we consider the na¬ 
ture of the objections which he urged against the Hal- 
..leriaii hypothesis, which were rather of a metaphysical 
nature, than such as were either founded upon experi¬ 
ment or deduced from observation. His doctrine of 
the vital motions of the body, which formed the princi¬ 
pal subject of the controversy, may be regarded as in¬ 
termediate between that of Haller and Stahl, or rather 
compounded of the two. He attributes these vital mo¬ 
tions to the operation of the sentient principle, which is 
supposed to be something distinct from the corporal 
frame, at the same time that it is necessarily attached 
to it, and is under the influence of physical causes, not 
like the anima of Stahl, acting by a species of independ¬ 
ent consciousness and volition. The great error which 
pervades the speculations of Whytt and Porterfield con¬ 
sists in their reasoning more upon metaphysical than 
upon physical principles, and in their assuming certain 
powers, the proof of which rests more upon their sup¬ 
posed necessity to account for the actions of the system, 
than upon any independent evidence that we have of 
their existence. They did not, indeed, like the Stahl- 
ians, consider the sentient principle as something inde¬ 
pendent of the body, and only, as it were, appended to 

* See particularly Whytt on Vital and Involuntary Motions, and 
Physiological Essays. Porterfield on the Eye, passim, and papers in 
Edinburgh Medical Essays. Thomson’s Cullen, v. i. p. 241-258. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


341 


it, but as a principle or power necessarily belonging to 
the living body, and imparting to it its vitality, although 
essentially distinct in its nature from any of the prop¬ 
erties of a mere material agent. Whytt may be re¬ 
garded as the founder of the sect which obtained the 
name of the Semi-animists, which, under various modi¬ 
fications, included some of the most distinguished 
physiologists both in this country and in France. Of 
the latter, one of the most prominent was Sauvages; 
he was a native of Languedoc, and received his educa¬ 
tion at Montpellier, which, during the early part of the 
eighteenth century, held a very high character as a 
school of medicine. In 1734, he was appointed one of 
the professors in the university of that city, and during 
the remainder of his life contributed materially to main¬ 
tain its credit by his talents both as a writer and a 
teacher. His reputation with posterity will principally 
rest upon his Methodical Nosology, a work which con¬ 
tains an arrangement of diseases into classes, orders, 
genera, and species, on the same plan which had been 
employed in the arrangement of the subjects of natural 
history. The Nosology of Sauvages is a work of great 
and original merit, which, although now in some degree 
superseded by the improvements of later writers, 
mainly contributed to the advancement of medical 
knowledge by producing accuracy in the use of terms 
and in the discrimination of the characters of disease.f 
The same kind of service which Haller rendered to 
the science of physiology was performed for that of the 
practice of medicine by his contemporary Cullen. 
Among those who have made the study of medicine 
their professed pursuit, no one, since the revival of 
letters, has risen to greater eminence during his life¬ 
time, nor has left behind him a higher reputation than 
this celebrated individual. During the greatest part 
of a long life he was engaged in the teaching of medi¬ 
cine or some of the collateral sciences, first in the uni¬ 
versity of Glasgow, and afterward in that of Edin- 


f Eloy, in loco. Haller, Bib. Anat. “Boissier,” t. ii. p. 300 - 4 , §. 999 . 



342 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

burgh, which latter he contributed, in no small degree, 
to raise to the rank which it long held, of the first 
medical school in Europe. His peculiar excellence as 
a lecturer afforded him an ample opportunity of pro¬ 
mulgating and enforcing his doctrines, while their real 
merit, no less than the mode in which they were an¬ 
nounced, rendered them in the highest degree popular 
among his pupils and contemporaries. He possessed 
an acute and ardent mind; he was well skilled in the 
medical literature both of the ancients and the mod¬ 
erns, but he had no undue respect for the opinions of 
others on the mere ground of authority. He detected 
the defects of former hypotheses with shrewdness and 
sagacity, while he proposed his own views with a de¬ 
gree of candour and modesty, which tended to render 
-them the more acceptable, and disposed his audience to 
receive them in the same spirit with which they were 
proposed. 

With respect to his physiological writings, they af¬ 
ford, in some respects, a remarkable contrast to those 
of Haller; for while the latter are extended to a great 
length, and are filled with the most minute and elabo¬ 
rate details, the former are no less remarkable for their 
compressed brevity, consisting principally in general 
views and abstracted deductions. Contrary, however, 
to what is so frequently the case with respect to works 
of this description, they are not to be regarded as mere 
speculative positions, but as the condensed result of 
patient research and extensive observation. Some of 
the leading doctrines of his pathology were professedly 
borrowed from Hoffmann; but to these he made many 
important additions, by taking advantage of the various 
improvements that had been made in physiological 
knowledge, principally by means of Haller and his 
pupils. Still later discoveries in this science, and in 
that of chymistry, have indeed proved that certain 
parts of his system are not tenable, and that others 
require to be considerably altered and modified; but it 
may be asserted, that no one produced a more powerful 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


343 


and lasting effect upon the state of medicine, in all its 
branches, both theoretical and practical, than Cullen. 
But his great and appropriate merit, and which entitles 
him to the admiration and gratitude of posterity, is the 
sagacity and diligence which he manifested in the de¬ 
scription and discrimination of the phenomena of dis¬ 
ease. In this talent he may be considered as rivalling 
Sydenham, or any of his most distinguished predeces¬ 
sors, while the recent improvements in physiology and 
the other branches of medical science gave him an ad¬ 
vantage which he did not fail duly to improve. In his 
treatment of disease he manifested no less judgment 
and sagacity than in the formation of his theories. He 
was prompt and decisive, without rashness; he esti¬ 
mated the powers of remedies by a cautious and ac¬ 
curate examination of their effects, with little bias 
from hypothesis, and with even somewhat of a skeptical 
disposition of mind, which prevented him from falling 
into those errors and inconsistencies to which the prac¬ 
tice of medicine is so peculiarly obnoxious. 

In giving an account of the system of Boerhaave, 
we remarked that in its formation he proceeded upon 
the eclectic plan, founding it upon the opinions of 
others, which he endeavoured to connect together, and 
to mould into a consistent and uniform theory. Cullen 
adopted the more philosophical mode of generalization 
and induction. He disclaims all hypotheses and theor¬ 
ies not derived immediately from facts, and made it his 
great business to collect, by actual observation, the 
materials from which he might deduce his general prin¬ 
ciples. In this object he was eminently successful, and 
it is this which gives his writings their great value, a 
value which they must ever retain, amid all the revolu¬ 
tions of opinion, which attach to medicine more than to 
any other branch of science. But, although he was so 
sensible of the advantage of the inductive mode of in¬ 
vestigation, he was not a mere empirical practitioner, 
who disregarded all theoretical reasoning, and never 
ventured to go beyond the simple result of experience. 


344 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

On the contrary, he inquires in all cases into the re¬ 
mote and primary causes of disease, and endeavours 
to deduce from them his indications of cure. Many of 
his individual speculations are indeed remarkable for 
their subtilty and refinement, and may be characterized 
as exhibiting more ingenuity than judgment. At the 
same time it is not a little remarkable, that these spec¬ 
ulations, however carefully they were elaborated, had 
but little influence on his practice; and it is gratifying 
to observe with what caution he applies his hypothesis 
to explain or direct his method of treating disease. 

His great work, entitled, “First Lines of the Prac¬ 
tice of Physic,” is the one on which his reputation will 
principally rest; but the merits of his Institutions, of his 
Nosology, and of his Lectures on the Materia Medica, 
*are each of them sufficient to have entitled him to a dis¬ 
tinguished rank among the improvers of medical 
science. The last of these works, in which he takes a 
more philosophical view of the operation of remedies 
than had been done by any of his predecessors, is one 
of peculiar value. It contains a great variety of im¬ 
portant pathological observations, together with a com¬ 
plete theory of therapeutics, and being the latest of his 
publications, we find in it his more matured and cor¬ 
rected views on many topics which had been treated in 
his former works. In none of them do we find more of 
that spirit of rational skepticism to which I have alluded 
above, and which led him to be more confident in op¬ 
posing the opinions of others than in maintaining his 
own. Like Haller, with whom I have already taken 
occasion both to compare and to contrast him, he con¬ 
tributed to introduce into medical reasoning a philo¬ 
sophical spirit, which has produced a permanent and 
highly salutary effect upon the healing art, and which 
associates the name of Cullen with those of the great 
benefactors of the human race. 

It is not easy to give, in a short compass, an account 
of the pathological doctrines of Cullen, because they 
consisted rather of a number of individual parts, as 


Oif MEDICAL HISTORY 


345 

applied to the explanation of particular phenomena, 
than of one comprehensive system, which constituted a 
general theory of diseased action. The foundation of 
the system is, however, sufficiently simple; that the liv¬ 
ing body consists of a number of organs, which are all 
of them possessed of powers of a specific and appro¬ 
priate nature, distinct from those which are attached to 
inanimate matter. These powers are so ordered that 
they have a tendency to preserve the whole machine in 
a perfect state, when its actions and functions proceed 
in their ordinary course. When any irregularity super¬ 
venes, either from internal or external causes, if it be 
not in an excessive degree, the self-regulating principle 
is sufficient to control the operation of the morbid 
cause, and to restore the system to its healthy condi¬ 
tion. This regulating principle, or, as it was termed, 
the vis medicatrix nature, differs essentially from the 
archeus of Van Helmont or the anima of Stahl, inas¬ 
much as it is supposed not to be any thing superadded 
to the body, but one of the powers or properties neces¬ 
sary to its constitution as a living system, and the exist¬ 
ence of which is recognized by its effects. Although 
the laws of gravity and of chymical affinity affect the 
animal body, so far as it is composed of material or¬ 
gans, yet its appropriate actions are under the immedi¬ 
ate influence of the specific law of vitality. Hence all 
explanations, depending upon mere mechanical or chym¬ 
ical reasoning, were abandoned, and in their place was 
substituted the vital action of the parts, and more es¬ 
pecially that of the extreme branches of the arterial 
system, or, as they are styled, the capillary arteries. 
Although it may appear that both Stahl and Hoffmann 
had, to a certain extent, preoccupied the ground which 
was taken by Cullen, as to the foundation of his sys¬ 
tem, and although the system, as detailed by him, is 
defective in some of its subordinate parts, yet we must 
admit, that the ample and explicit manner in which it 
was stated gave it the aspect and much of the merit of 
novelty, while the applications which he made of it were 


346 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

frequently just, and always ingenious. His physiology 
and his chymistry were not in all cases correct; he did 
not pay sufficient attention to the distinction between 
the powers of the muscles and the nerves, which had 
been so well discriminated by Haller, and he even con¬ 
founds their physical structure. But, with all these 
abatements, we still regard the pathology of Cullen 
with much respect, and consider him as one of those 
who greatly contributed to improve the science no less 
than the practice of his art.* 

What may be termed the Cullenean school of medi¬ 
cine, including both his numerous pupils and the writ¬ 
ers who either embraced his peculiar opinions or 
adopted his method of investigation, comprehends a 
large portion of the most distinguished of the British 
physicians during the remainder of the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury. The rational empiricism, as it has been styled, 
which he so firmly established, both by precept and ex¬ 
ample, has, in this country at least, so far superseded 
the taste for mere speculation and hypothesis, that we 
are, perhaps, disposed to run into the opposite extreme, 
and to undervalue all attempts to investigate the ab¬ 
stract principles of pathology, and to employ ourselves 
solely in the accumulation of facts, without duly attend¬ 
ing to the general conclusions that may be deduced 
from them.* 

We have, however, to notice one singular exception 
to this remark, where an hypothesis was advanced, of 
the most bold and lofty pretensions, disdaining the sup¬ 
port of facts and experience, and professing to explain 
all the phenomena of life and of disease by a few sim- 


* For a minute detail of the opinions of Cullen, and those of his 
immediate predecessors and contemporaries, the reader is referred to 
the learned and ample work of Dr. Thomson, which may be character¬ 
ized as containing a philosophical history of medicine and pathology 
during the beginning and middle of the eighteenth century. The ac¬ 
count which is given of Cullen’s pupils must be perused with much inter¬ 
est—an interest which, in the case of the writer of this work, is ex¬ 
alted by the sacred sentiment of filial piety: p. 461, 644-6. I conceive 
that Sprengel, t. v. p. 359-366, in criticising the doctrines of Cullen, is 
somewhat deficient in that candour for which he is, in most cases, so 
conspicuous. See also, Encyc. Brit, in loco; Aikin’s Gen. Biog. in loco; 
Kerr, Brewster’s Encyc. art. “Cullen.” 

* In this brief sketch I can do no more than merely mention the 
names of some of our countrymen who, either by the publication of 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


347 


pie aphorisms. In tracing the history of science, al¬ 
though it is proper, for the most part, to estimate books 
and opinions solely by their intrinsic merit, without any 
regard to the personal character of the author, yet we 
find them, on some occasions, so intimately connected, 
that it is impossible altogether to separate them. This 
is the case with the celebrated Brown, whose theory 
appears to have originated as much from spleen and 
disappointment, and a determination to oppose the doc¬ 
trines of Cullen, as from a more legitimate motive. 

Neither the education of Brown nor his natural char¬ 
acter were of the kind the best adapted for the prose¬ 
cution of medical science. He was originally destined 
for the ecclesiastical profession; and when he afterward 
entered upon that of medicine, he never devoted him¬ 
self to those elementary studies which are indispen¬ 
sably necessary to a correct knowledge either of theory 
or of practice. But what he wanted in knowledge he 
endeavoured to supply by the force of his own genius; 
and by meditating upon a few general or abstract prin¬ 
ciples, he ventured to form a new system of pathology, 
which he announced with a degree of confidence that, 
while it exhibited the strong powers of his understand¬ 
ing, proved no less the deficiency of his information. 
Medicine, which had hitherto been a conjectural art, 
was now to be built upon a few certain and fixed prin¬ 
ciples, which, by superseding all that had been previ¬ 
ously written upon the subject, and by being independ¬ 
ent both of observation and of experience, required for 
its attainment little previous study or learning. The 
novelty of the attempt, the easy access which it prom¬ 
ised to a science which before appeared of difficult ap- 


single cases, or of monographs on certain diseases, have contributed 
to the advancement of pathological or practical knowledge. Among 
others we may select those of Gregory, the able successor of. Cullen, 
Pringle, M’Bride, Huxham, Fothergill, Cleghorn, Brocklesby, Lmd, and 
Russel. In our own times, we have had the no less illustrious names 
of the Hunters, of Percival, Withering, Johnstone, Falconer, Heberden, 
Baillie, Haygarth, Ferriar, Currie, Willan, Bateman, Marcet, and Parry. 
In mentioning the name of Gregory, I must be allowed to express the 
sentiments of respect and regard which I have always felt for my 
preceptor. The elegance of his literary taste, his clear and compre¬ 
hensive judgment, and more especially the interesting mode in which 
he conveyed his instruction, all contributed to render him one of the 
most distinguished ornaments of his profession. 



348 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

proach, and the plausibility of some of its leading posi¬ 
tions, acquired for the new theory a prodigious degree 
of popularity in the university of Edinburgh, where it 
was first promulgated. Brown had been, in the first in¬ 
stance, patronised by Cullen, but, from some causes, 
both of a personal and a professional nature, which it is 
not difficult to comprehend, he forfeited the good opin¬ 
ion, and became the bitter antagonist of the doctrines 
of his former friend. The controversy to which this 
schism gave rise was carried on for some years with 
great vehemence, and was by no means confined to the 
place where it originated. In this country the Bruno- 
nian system obtained many adherents when it was first 
proposed, principally, indeed, among the students or 
younger members of the profession; while in some 
'parts of the Continent, more especially in Italy, it was 
adopted by men of learning and science, and became 
the prevailing hypothesis in some of the most respect¬ 
able medical schools. 

The general principles of the theory are few and 
simple. He assumed that the living body possesses a 
specific property or power, termed excitability; that 
every thing which in any way affects the living body 
acts upon this power as an excitant or stimulant; that 
the effect of this operation, or excitement, when in its 
ordinary state, is to produce the natural and healthy 
condition of the functions; when excessive, it causes 
exhaustion, termed direct debility; when defective, it 
produces an accumulation of excitement, or what is 
termed indirect debility. All morbid action is con¬ 
ceived to depend upon one or other of these states of 
direct or indirect debility, and diseases are accordingly 
arranged in two great corresponding classes of sthenic 
or asthenic; while the treatment is solely directed to 
the general means for increasing or diminishing the 
excitement, without any regard to specific symptoms, 
or any consideration but that of degree, or any meas¬ 
ure but that of quantity. Such general views and 
sweeping doctrines, however alluring to the uninformed 


OF MED I CAE HISTORY 


349 


or the mere theorist, are altogther inapplicable to prac¬ 
tice; and it is a subject for our admiration how they 
could be for a moment entertained by any one who had 
studied the phenomena of disease, or who was ac¬ 
quainted with the intricate and complicated relations of 
the different functions and actions of the living system. 
Accordingly, in this country, where, in consequence of 
the prevalence of the Cullenean school, the attention 
was more directed to practical than to theoretical de¬ 
tails, the professed adherents of Brown were neither 
numerous nor influential; and even in Italy, where for 
some time it enjoyed considerable popularity, it has 
long ceased to be maintained. Yet it must always oc¬ 
cupy a distinguished place in the history of medical 
science, as exhibiting a remarkable example of the force 
of original and unaided genius in erecting a system, 
plausible and captivating in its aspect, but devoid of the 
essential support of facts and observations, and there¬ 
fore fated to share the lot of all systems built on so un¬ 
stable a basis.* 

In connection with Brown I must notice a medical 
theorist, whose general principles bore a considerable 
resemblance to those of the “Elementa Medicinae,” but 
whose character, talents, and acquirements were of a 
totally opposite kind. The “Zoonomia” of Darwin ex¬ 
hibits genius and originality; but in no other respect 
does it bear any resemblance to its prototype. Darwin 
possessed a knowledge of medical and all the collateral 
sciences in their full extent; he was familiar with prac¬ 
tice, and had a taste for minute detail and experimental 
research, which, while it appeared to qualify him for a 
medical theorist, enabled him to give to his system an 
imposing aspect of induction and generalization. His 
speculations, although highly refined, profess to be 
founded upon facts; and his arrangement and classifi- 

* Beddoes’s Observations, prefixed to his edition of Brown’s Ele¬ 
ments; a writer possessed of originality and genius, but perhaps not 
unaptly characterized by Rothe as “a blind adherent of the new chymists 
and of Brown.” M’Kenzie, in Brewster’s Enc., art “Brown.” Parr’s 
Diet., art. “Brunonian System.” Aikin’s Gen. Biog. in loco. Sprengel, 
t. vi. p. 155-158, 315-334. Sward, Biographie Umverselle, in loco. 



350 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


cation, although complicated, seem consistent in all 
their parts. No theory which had ever been offered 
to the public was more highly elaborated, and appeared 
to be more firmly supported by experience and observa¬ 
tion, while every adventitious aid was given to it from 
the cultivated taste and extensive information of the 
writer. Yet the Zoonomia made little impression on 
public opinion; its leading doctrines rested rather upon 
metaphysical than upon physical considerations; its 
fundamental positions were found to be gratuitous, and 
many of the illustrations, although ingenious, were 
conceived to be inapplicable and inconclusive. It is 
now seldom referred to, except as a splendid monu¬ 
ment of fruitless labour and misapplied learning.f 


CHAPTER XII. 

Remarks on the State of Practical Medicine at the Conclu¬ 
sion of the Eighteenth Century—State of Medicine in 
France, Lieutaud—State of Medicine in Germany, De 
Haen—State of Medicine in Italy, Morgagni, Burserius, 
Rasori—Epidemics—Improvements in Pharmacy. 

While the British physicians were principally oc¬ 
cupied in collecting facts and recording their observa¬ 
tions, and, with the exception of the temporary suspen¬ 
sion which was occasioned by the Brunonian contro¬ 
versy, were more intent in adding to the stock of 
knowledge than in forming systems, the continental 
physicians were more disposed to pursue the eclectic 
plan of Boerhaave. In France this was accomplished 
with the most success by Lieutaud. He was a native of 
Provence, and was for some years a professor at Aix; 
in 1749 he was appointed physician to the royal hospital 


t Brewster’s Enc., in loco. Sprengel, vol. vi. p. 269, 70, 278, 9. 
Young's Med. Lit., p. 54, 5. Brown’s Remarks on the Zoonomia, an 
acute, but rather severe critique. Suard, Biographie Universelle, in loco. 




OF MEDICAL, HISTORY 


351 


at Versailles, and finally to the court of France. He 
was eminent both as a practitioner and an anatomist; 
his great work, the “Synopsis Universse Praxeos Medi- 
cae,” published in 1765, contains much information on 
all topics connected with medicine, and is valuable from 
its real merits in this respect, while it is interesting as 
affording a correct view of the state of medical science 
in France at that period. With respect to his general 
principles, he was an eclectic, uniting certain parts of 
the old doctrines of the mathematicians and the humor- 
alists with those of Hoffmann and the vitalists.* Upon 
the whole, however, I conceive that I shall not be ac¬ 
cused of partiality or want of candour in stating the 
opinion, that the views of Lieutaud and his country¬ 
men are less matured than those of his contemporaries 
in this island or in Holland. I may remark, in speak¬ 
ing of France, that for many years the great seat of 
medical science in that country was Montpellier. Its 
university was established in the thirteenth century, 
and was one of the earliest of those which rose to any 
considerable eminence; a distinction which it main¬ 
tained until it was rivalled by that of Paris, which 
gradually acquired its splendid reputation during the 
course of the seventeenth century. To the name of 
Sauvages, who was mentioned above as distinguished 
for his learned work on nosology, we may add those of 
Bordeu, Barthez, and Astruc as among the most emi¬ 
nent members of the school of Montpellier.f 

Of the medical schools of Germany, the most cele¬ 
brated during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 
was Vienna. I have already mentioned the exertions 
that were so successfully made for its advancement by 
Van Swieten, who was appointed one of its professors 
in the year 1734. After he had occupied this situation 
for about twenty years, he associated with himself his 
countryman De Haen, who materially contributed to 
support the reputation of the university, particularly 


* Hutchinson’s Biog. Med., vol. ii. p. 63 et seq. 
t Moreau de la Sarthe, Encyc. Meth. Medecine, in loco. 



352 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


by his talents as a practitioner. His great work, enti¬ 
tled, “Ratio Medendi,” is a valuable repository of facts 
and observations, upon which I may make the same 
remark that I offered above respecting Lieutaud’s 
“Synopsis.” De Haen has been characterized as a man 
of great learning, united with much practical skill, and 
a talent for correct observation; but, on the other hand, 
he appears to have been unreasonably prejudiced 
against new opinions, and even improvements, in his 
art; for not only was he one of the most zealous oppo¬ 
nents of Haller’s theory, but he was no less decided in 
his opposition to the practice of inoculation, and to the 
use of various new remedies, which were at that period 
introduced into medicine, the value of which is now 
generally recognised. The state of medical theory 
then prevailing in Vienna was nearly the same with 
that which was taught in the universities of Leyden 
and Paris; the doctrines of the humoral pathology may 
be considered as forming the basis of their hypotheses; 
but upon these was ingrafted a certain portion of the 
new views respecting the action of the nervous system 
and the contractibility of the muscular fibre. 

In Italy, which so early acquired a high degree of 
celebrity for its medical schools, and which still retains 
a considerable portion of its former reputation, the 
sciences of anatomy and physiology were cultivated 
with success, while they were but little attended to in 
the other parts of Europe. What may be styled ana¬ 
tomical pathology took its rise in Italy in the seventeenth 
century. The individual to whom the merit of having 
opened this new road to the improvement of medical 
knowledge is principally due to Bonet,J who was born 
at Geneva in 1620, and at an advanced period of his 
life published his great work, entitled “Sepulchretum,” 
which was afterward enlarged by his learned and in¬ 
dustrious countryman, Manget.§ The Sepulchretum 


t Haller, Bibl. Med. lib. io, §. 750, t. iii. p. 236 et seq. Eloy, in 
loco. Dezetmens, Arch. Gen. de Med. xx. 158, 9. 
nr J Waller, Bibl. An at lib. 7, §. 749, t. i. p. 103 et seq. Haller, Bibl. 
Med. lib. 11, §. 889, t in. p. 603 et seq. Eloy, ' ' 


in loco. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


353 

has been styled “The Library of true Pathology;” it 
consists of a great collection of cases, in which we have 
a history of the disease, with the appearances found 
upon dissection. The plan which had been commenced 
by Bonet and Manget was followed up by Valsalva, an 
eminent professor of Bologna, and still further per¬ 
fected by the illustrious Morgagni. This eminent anat¬ 
omist was a pupil of Valsalva’s and afterward became 
professor in the university of Padua, where for nearly 
sixty years, until his death, which took place in 1771, 
he devoted himself without intermission to the study of 
his favourite pursuit. The principal works of Mor¬ 
gagni are, his “Adversaria Anatomica,” his “Epistolae 
Anatomicae,” and more especially his great pathological 
collection entitled “De Sedibus et Causis Morborum 
per Anatomiam indagatis.” It proceeds upon the plan 
of Bonet’s Sepulchretum, and contains the observations 
which were made both by himself and by Valsalva, and 
has always been regarded as a respository of facts and 
observations on anatomy and pathology, unequalled in 
extent and accuracy.* 

The Institutions of Burserius afford a favourable 
view of the state of medical science in Italy at this pe¬ 
riod. He was born at Trent in 1724; studied first at 
Padua, and afterward at Bologna; he was for some 
years a professor in the university of Pavia, and finally 
removed to Milan, where he died in 1785^ Burserius 
was rather an eclectic than an original theorist, but his 
work is much valued for the information which it con¬ 
tains, and much admired for the elegant manner in 
which the information is conveyed. Like his contem¬ 
poraries in Holland, France, and Germany, his doc¬ 
trines are essentially founded upon those of the humor- 
alists, but to these he unites various parts of those of 
the solidists and vitalists, and has proved himself de- 


* Eloy, in loco. Haller, Bibl. Anat. lib. 8, §. 797, t. ii. p. 34 et seq. 
Haller, Bibl. Med. lib. 12, §. 1029, t. iv. p. 424 et seq. Renauldm, Biog. 
Univ. in loco. . „ . 

f Vide Praef. ad Instit. Med. Prac. ed. Lips. 1787. 

23 



354 


A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 


serving of the praise, not only of learning, but of can¬ 
dour and judgment. 

I have already had occasion to remark upon the ef¬ 
fect which was produced in Italy by the theory of 
Brown; it was embraced by many of the learned men 
of that country, and for some time acquired a consider¬ 
ably greater ascendency over public opinion than it pos¬ 
sessed even in its native city. It was not only defended 
in their publications, but its doctrines were applied to 
practice, and it was not until their insufficiency had 
been detected by fatal experience that the delusion was 
removed 4 At the conclusion of the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury it would seem that the medical theories of the Ital¬ 
ians were considerably similar to those of the Cullenean 
school, and that the Italians, like the English physi¬ 
cians, were little disposed to form systems of medicine, 
but devoted themselves principally to the cultivation of 
anatomy and physiology, in addition to the more im¬ 
mediate studies of their profession. 

In tracing the additions and improvements which the 
science of medicine received during the eighteenth cen¬ 
tury, I must not omit to notice the descriptions of new 
diseases, either those which were conceived to have 
actually originated during this period, if there were any 
such, or those which had not been previously discrim¬ 
inated with sufficient accuracy from others that in many 
respects resembled them. The various epidemics 
which, from some unascertained and unexplained 
causes, have at different times passed over large por¬ 
tions of the surface of the earth; the endemic diseases 
attached to particular situations, originating in some 
circumstances connected with the atmosphere, soil, or 
climate of certain districts, or in the occupation or mode 

t Rasori of Genoa appears to have been the first who made his 
countrymen acquainted with the doctrines of Brown, of which he was a 
zealous adherent; subsequently, however, he found reason, from the 
result of experience, to change his opinions, and very candidly and 
honestly expressed his conviction of their erroneous tendency. An 
ample account of the pathological doctrines which are at present the 
most generally received in Italy, under the title of *‘Nuova Dottrina 
Italiana,” may be found in the various publications of Tommasini, the 
learned professor of Bologna. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


355 

of life of its inhabitants; and lastly, the contagious or 
infectious diseases, which have invaded entire cities or 
communities, from unknown, or at least obscure causes, 
and, after spreading destruction on all sides, have dis¬ 
appeared from causes equally unascertained. 

The first of these classes, the epidemic diseases, were 
made an especial object of attention, in the latter part 
of the seventeenth century, by Sydenham, whose re¬ 
marks on them are among the most interesting of his 
works; also by Morton and by Ramazzini; at a some¬ 
what later period we have the valuable observations of 
Huxham, of Lancisi and Torti in Italy, and of Stoll at 
Vienna. The science has been much enriched by vari¬ 
ous descriptions of the disasters incident to the army 
and navy, among which we may particularly notice 
those of Pringle, Brucklesby, D. Monro, Hunter, Lind, 
Hillary, Blaine, Trotter, Larrey, and Desgenettes.§ 
The formidable disease which has been emphatically 
termed the Plague, as it appeared in London, the Low 
Countries, Marseilles, Moscow, and other parts of 
Europe, in the latter part of the seventeenth and the 
beginning of the eighteenth century, and, as it still ex¬ 
ists in Turkey, Egypt, and the adjoining countries,|| as 
well as the less formidable, although more extensive 
visitation of the influenza, have each had their histo¬ 
rians ; and it is truly gratifying to observe that, in most 
cases, the writers have been more anxious to collect 
facts and to obtain correct information, than to support 
any particular theoretical views.* * 

In reviewing the state of medical science during the 
eighteenth century, and tracing its gradual advance- 


§ For a very complete list of works on these subjects, the reader is 
referred to the valuable work of Professor Ballingall on Military 
Surgery, p. 227 et seq. 

|| Hecker’s account of the “Black Death,” which ravaged so large 
a portion of the globe in the fourteenth century, may be mentioned as 
a work worthy of our notice, both as containing many interesting de¬ 
tails of this tremendous pestilence, and as exhibiting a curious specimen 
of medical hypothesis. 

* For the names of the authors who have treated on these topics, 
I must refer to the respective articles in the Cyclopedia of Medicine. 
Copious lists of authors may also be found in Young’s Medical Litera¬ 
ture, a work no less remarkable for its learning than for the con¬ 
densed form in which it is communicated. Much valuable information 
on this subject will be found in Sprengel, sect. 16, ch. 3, art. 2 , 



356 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

ment, we are naturally led to remark upon the great ad¬ 
ditions which have been made to pharmacy, both in re¬ 
gard to the introduction of new articles into the materia 
medica, and the improvement that has taken place in 
the preparation of various substances, and in the mode 
of their administration. It has been remarked, that in 
proportion as our knowledge of the virtues and qualities 
of medicines has been matured, our pharmacopoeia has 
been simplified, both as to the number of articles em¬ 
ployed and the mode of compounding them. Accord¬ 
ingly, if we compare the successive editions of the Brit¬ 
ish pharmacopoeias and dispensatories, we shall find 
that a number of superfluous and inert substances have 
been from time to time rejected, and that the complex 
formulae of the older physicians have been reduced in 
the same proportion. At the same time some sub¬ 
stances of real efficiency have been added, while the im¬ 
provement in chymical science has enabled us to obtain 
the active principles of these substances in much more 
condensed and commodious forms. This remark may 
be illustrated by Peruvian bark, a remedy which for a 
long period afforded a fertile field for controversy, both 
as to its power over disease, the nature of its operation, 
and the mode of its administration. Practitioners have 
long been aware of the futility of most of the points 
which were the subject of so much warm and even 
acrimonious discussion, and are satisfied with recognis¬ 
ing its value as a powerful curative agent in certain dis¬ 
eases, without endeavouring to discover the nature of 
the occult qualities on which its operation depends; 
while the chymist has lent his aid in pointing out a 
mode by which its active proximate principle may be 
procured, detached from the inert matter with which it 
is naturally combined. The skill of the modern chym¬ 
ist has likewise been most beneficially exercised on the 
metallic preparations; giving them more fixed and 
definite combinations, pointing out the modes by which 
they may be produced with more ease and certainty, 
and ascertaining the chymical relation which they bear 


OF MEDICAL, HISTORY 


357 


to other substances, so as to indicate how they may be 
combined with them without decomposition, or even 
with an increase of their activity. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

Cursory Remarks on the State of Practical Medicine since the 
Commencement of the Present Century—Difficulty of ac¬ 
quiring Medical Experience—State of Medicine in Great 
Britain—Pathologists of France—Physiologists of Ger¬ 
many—Medical Journals—Medical Societies—Schools of 
Medicine—Suggestions for the Improvement of Medical 
Science. 

As the historian of medicine approaches nearer to his 
own times, he finds his path encumbered with almost 
insurmountable difficulties. The subject on which he 
has to treat differs, perhaps, from every other branch of 
science in this circumstance, that our actual informa¬ 
tion does not increase, in any degree, in proprotion to 
our experience. Hence it follows that the accumula¬ 
tion of materials frequently rather retards than pro¬ 
motes its progress. In other sciences, although truth 
is not to be attained without a certain degree of labori¬ 
ous research, yet to those who are willing to bestow on 
it the requisite attention, it is, for the most part, attain¬ 
able, or, if it still eludes our grasp, we are at least sensi¬ 
ble of the deficiency, and can generally ascertain the 
precise nature of the obstacles which impede our pro¬ 
gress. In other sciences, when we enter upon an in¬ 
quiry, or propose to ourselves any definite object for 
experiment or observation, we are able to say whether 
the result of our inquiry has been satisfactory, and 
whether the object in view has or has not been accom¬ 
plished. 

But this is unfortunately not the case in medicine. 
There are certain peculiarities necessarily connected 



358 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

with the subject, which render it extremely difficult to 
appreciate the value of experiment and observation. In 
our experiments we are seldom able to ascertain with 
accuracy the previous state of the body on which we 
operate, and in our observations we are seldom able to 
ascertain what is the exact cause of the effect which we 
witness. The history of medicine in all its parts, and 
especially that of the materia medica, affords ample tes¬ 
timony to the truth of these remarks. In modern 
times, and more remarkably in Great Britain, no one 
thinks of proposing a new mode of practice without 
supporting it by the results of practical experience. 
The disease exists, the remedy is prescribed, and the 
disease is removed; we have no reason to doubt the 
veracity or the ability of the narrator; his favourable 
report induces his contemporaries to pursue the same 
means of cure, the same favourable result is obtained, 
and it appears impossible for any fact to be supported 
by more decisive testimony. Yet in the space of a few 
short years the boasted remedy has lost its virtue, the 
disease no longer yields to its power, while its place is 
supplied by some new remedy, which, like its predeces¬ 
sors, runs through the same career of expectation, suc¬ 
cess, and disappointment. 

Let us apply these remarks to the case of fever, the 
disease which has been styled the touchstone of medical 
theory, and which may be pronounced to be its oppro¬ 
brium. At the termination of the last century, while 
the doctrine of Cullen was generally embraced, typhus 
fever was called a disease of debility, and was of course 
to be cured by tonics and stimulants. No sooner was 
it ascertained to exist, than bark and wine were admin¬ 
istered in as large doses as the patient could be induced 
or was found able to take. No doubt was entertained 
of their power over the disease; the only question that 
caused any doubt in the mind of the practitioner, was, 
whether the patient could bear the quantity that would 
be necessary for the cure. 

To this treatment succeeded that of cold affusion. 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


359 

The high character and literary reputation of the in¬ 
dividual who proposed this remedy, its simplicity and 
easy application, the candid spirit which was mani¬ 
fested, and the strong testimonials which were adduced 
by his contemporaries, bore down all opposition, and we 
flattered ourselves that we had at length subdued the 
formidable monster. But we were doomed to experi¬ 
ence the ordinary process of disappointment; the prac¬ 
tice as usual, was found inefficient or injurious, and it 
was, after a short time, supplanted by the use of the 
lancet. But this practice was even more short-lived 
than either of its predecessors; and thus, in a space of 
less than forty years, we have gone through three rev¬ 
olutions of opinion with respect to our treatment of a 
disease of very frequent occurrence, and of the most 
decisive and urgent symptoms. 

Are we, then, to conclude that all medical treatment 
is of no avail ? that it is all imaginary or deceptive ? I 
should feel most unwilling to be compelled to form 
such a conclusion, nor do I conceive that it necessarily 
follows from the premises; but the facts certainly prove 
the importance of extreme caution in forming our con¬ 
clusions, and still more that mere experience, without 
the due combination of well regulated theory, is a most 
fallacious guide. What objection can the man of mere 
experience, the rejector of all theoretical deductions, 
urge against the multiplied testimony that is now pre¬ 
sented to us in favour of the Homoiopathic doctrine ?— 
what answer can be made to the report that has been 
recently brought forward by the medical commissioners 
of Paris, on the subject of Animal Magnetism? The 
conclusion that forces itself irresistibly on the mind is, 
that no medical testimony is sufficient to establish a fact 
which is in itself incredible, and that this previous in¬ 
credibility can only be ascertained by an extensive and 
accurate knowledge of the functions and properties of 
the living body, both mental and corporal, in all its 
modifications and under all circumstances, and by a 
correct and careful generalization of the knowledge 


360 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

thus obtained. These considerations, as well as others 
which will present themselves to the mind of the reader, 
may be deemed a sufficient reason for my attempting 
no more than to offer a few general observations on the 
state of medical science during the period at which I 
am now arrived. I shall therefore devote this chapter 
to some cursory remarks on the practice of medicine as 
it now exists in the different countries of Europe, as 
well as on the state of some of the collateral or auxil¬ 
iary departments, and shall conclude by some sugges¬ 
tions for the best means for promoting its future pro¬ 
gress. 

The prevailing and predominant feeling of the most 
enlightened and the most judicious of the British prac¬ 
titioners during the period referred to has been to place 
little value upon theory, and to devote their minds al¬ 
most exclusively to the observation and collection of 
facts. There can be no doubt that this is a less injurious 
extreme than the opposite; but if the statement which 
has been made above be correct, it will probably be ad¬ 
mitted that this statement may be carried too far. And 
the same exclusiveness has also induced them to pay too 
little attention to some of the collateral departments of 
science. In pathology and in pharmaceutical chymis- 
try they have been far outstripped by the French, and 
in physiology by the Germans. But at the same time 
that I feel it necessary to pass this judgment on my 
countrymen, I must admit that the spirit of rational 
empiricism, to which I have referred above as the char¬ 
acteristic feature of the Cullenean school has produced 
a most beneficial influence on the general state of medi¬ 
cal practice. If it has, on some occasions, produced 
fluctuation of opinion, and in others indecision or inert¬ 
ness, it has tended to sweep away much error, and to 
purify the science from many of the antiquated doc¬ 
trines and practices that still maintain their ground 
among our continental brethren. This is more espec¬ 
ially the case with our pharmacopoeias, where, if we 
compare those of London and Paris, we shall be struck 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


361 


with the number of what we conceive to be useless arti¬ 
cles that are still retained in the latter, sanctioned by 
the authority of the scientific and enlightened body of 
men who compose the medical faculty of the French 
metropolis. We are, however, indebted to France for 
the most important improvements which have taken 
place in pharmaceutical chymistry; by their method of 
obtaining the proximate principles of various vegetable 
substances, and the greater precision which they have 
introduced into the formation of the metallic prepara¬ 
tions, they have conferred a great and lasting benefit on 
the art, which among all the revolutions of opinions and 
practices, can never be countervailed.* 

But the glory of French medical science is its path¬ 
ology. We are justly proud of our Hunters, our Mun- 
ros, and or Baillie; and there are certain individuals 
among our contemporaries who are emulously treading 
in their footsteps. But any feeling of national vanity 
which we might be disposed to indulge must be effectu¬ 
ally repressed when we look at the illustrious band of 
French pathologists, when we review the labours of 
Pinel, Andral, Breschet, Broussais, Corvisart, Cruveil- 
hier, Dupuytren, Laennec, Bayle, Louis, Gendrin, 
Foville, Chaussier, and others,f who have directed their 
attention more exclusively to pathology; and when we 
add to these the names of those who are to be regarded 
more in the light of physiologists, Bichat, Vic-d’Azyr, 
Cuvier, Richerand, Majendie, Edwards, Dumas, Legal- 
lois, Adelon, Demoulins, Serres, Blainville, Flourens, 
St. Hilaire, Dutrochet, and others, we must admit that 

* We have a very learned review of the state of medicine during the 
early part of the present century from the pen of the celebrated 
Sprengel. It is peculiarly valuable, from the numerous references which 
it contains to the writers of Germany, and from the view that it pre¬ 
sents of the opinions which prevail in that country. The German 
physiologists afford a singular admixture of profound investigation and 
fanciful mysticism.—Ed. Med. Journ. v. xii. p. 385 et seq. We have 
also an interesting sketch of the progress of the science by Cuvier; 
Hist. Scien. Nat. t. i. p. 3 ”- 344 » and t. iv. p. 2303-44. 

t I may refer my readers for an interesting account of the progress 
of pathology, since the commencement of the present century, to a 
series of papers in the Archives Generates de Medecine, by M. Dezei- 
meris, t. xxix. et seq. The “Dissertation” of Professor Alison, appended 
to the “Cvclopaedia of Practical Medicine,” contains an admirable view 
of the state of medical science generally during this period. 



362 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

France exhibits an unrivalled assemblage of medical 
philosophers. From the united labours of these emi¬ 
nent men it is impossible not to anticipate the most im¬ 
portant results; but I believe that I am justified in 
asserting that, so far as the practice of medicine is con¬ 
cerned, the benefit is still rather in anticipation than in 
existence. With certain exceptions, but these no doubt 
very important ones, I should characterize the French 
practice as decidedly less effective than that of our 
country; dependence is placed on remedies which we 
conceive to be inert, and much of the dietetic regimen 
which enters so largely into the treatment can produce 
no effect in the removal of disease. In short, their 
“medecine expectante,” although it may be a less 
dangerous weapon in the hands of ignorance or pre¬ 
sumption, is, in the same proportion, less powerful and 
beneficial when under the direction of skill and judg¬ 
ment. 

If France is pre-eminent for its pathology, Germany 
is no less so for its physiology and its anatomy. The 
names of Camper, Blumenbach, Ludwig, Soemmering, 
Meckel, Wrisberg, Reil, Tiedemann, Wenzel, Sprengel, 
Jacobsen, Carus, Pfaff, Oken, Osiander, Ackermann, 
Rosenmiiller, Gmelin, Walter, and Treviranus may be 
selected from many others, as among the most cele¬ 
brated throughout Europe, and as having made most 
important additions to our knowledge on the subjects 
to which they have particularly directed their attention. 
Yet, in Germany, as in France, the effect of this scien¬ 
tific co-operation on the practice of medicine is not yet 
fully experienced. The treatment of disease is perhaps 
not more effective than in France, while it is still more 
encumbered with complicated formulae and with anti¬ 
quated practices, which in this country have been dis¬ 
carded because they have been found useless or even 
injurious.* Italy, which so long ago took the lead in all 

* In speaking of the practical writers of Germany, it would be 
unjust to omit the name of Frank, and not to acknowledge the obliga¬ 
tion which he has conferred upon medical science. Among the path¬ 
ologists, Hartmann of Vienna and Conradi of Gottingen are perhaps the 
best known in this country. 



OF MEDICAL HISTORY 


363 

scientific pursuits, now offers the aspect of a splendid 
ruin, where we occasionally meet with an illustrious 
name, such for example as those of Scarpa, Caldani, 
Mascagni, Rolando, Bellingeri, and Tommasini, but 
where medical science, if it has not retrograded, has at 
least remained stationary. The practice of medicine 
has, however, had some zealous cultivators; I have 
already remarked on the activity with which the Bruno- 
nian controversy was pursued, and the excitement 
which was then produced seems to have had a bene¬ 
ficial effect in rousing the dormant energy of the mind, 
of which some traces are still visible. 

A circumstance which has materially contributed to 
the improvement of the knowledge of practical medi¬ 
cine is the publication of periodical works, whether in 
the form of journals or of the transactions of societies. 
They have brought before the public the daily occur¬ 
rences and passing events in a commodious and inter¬ 
esting form, and thus by exciting attention to them, 
have tended both to diffuse and to increase our knowl¬ 
edge on these subjects. It is, however, very much to be 
regretted that so valuable a mode of communication 
should, in too many instances, be used as the medium of 
personal animosity, and that what ought to be employed 
for the promotion of the welfare of mankind should be¬ 
come a vehicle of the basest and the most malignant 
passions. On this point, as well as on the one referred 
to above, justice compels me to state that the French 
metropolis offers us an example by which we might 
profit, in the number, extent, and general character of 
its medical periodicals; and the same sentiment leads 
me to remark, that the medical periodicals of London 
are decidedly excelled by those of Edinburgh and Dub¬ 
lin.—Among the published transactions of medical so¬ 
cieties, the Medico-Chirurgical may fairly be selected 
for our approbation; these, in the short space of about 
twenty-four years, have amounted to eighteen volumes, 
and have acquired a character which is too well estab¬ 
lished to require recommendation or sanction. 


364 A BIOGRAPHICAL CYCLOPEDIA 

In connection with their transactions I may mention 
the effect of the societies themselves, which, when they 
are confined to subjects of medical science, must be 
highly beneficial. Perhaps no single institution has 
contributed more to the improvement of our profession 
than the Edinburgh Medical Society, which, for so long 
a period, has maintained a reputation that reflects the 
greatest credit, not merely on its members, but even on 
the university to which it is attached. It is, indeed, a 
remarkable and an honourable circumstance, that an 
association, principally composed of students and en¬ 
tirely conducted by them, should have proceeded for 
above half a century in so uniform a course of respecta¬ 
bility; that during this period they should have ad¬ 
mitted of free discussion, without deviating into licen- 
. tiousness, and that amid the fluctuations to which such 
an association must necessarily be subject, successors 
have at all times been found able to direct its progress 
and qualified to support its reputation. 

Another circumstance to which I must briefly advert, 
which is both the cause and the consequence of the 
progress of our art, is the improved state of medical 
schools of all descriptions, both those attached to uni¬ 
versities or to public hospitals, and those conducted by 
private individuals. By a very singular anomaly it has 
happened that, in this country, the highest medical 
honours have been hitherto conferred by those bodies 
who did not profess to give the requisite means for 
their attainment. This circumstance may, indeed, in 
one point of view be regarded as paying the highest 
compliment to the English universities; but I believe 
that a very general sentiment now prevails among their 
most respectable members that this anomaly ought no 
longer to be suffered to exist, and that medical honours 
ought to be bestowed upon those, and those only, who 
have gone through what may be considered a sufficient 
course of preparatory studies, and who are able to give 
satisfactory proof that they have taken the due advan¬ 
tage of the means of improvement presented to them. 


OE MEDICAL HISTORY 


365 

But whatever may have been wanting in the English 
universities has been long supplied by that of Edin¬ 
burgh, and, at a later period, by those of Glasgow and 
Dublin. The great London hospitals, and some of the 
private schools, especially those of anatomy, have, for 
a number of years, possessed teachers of the highest 
talents, and most admirably qualified for their office; 
but our metropolis could not be said to hold out the 
means of a complete medical education previous to the 
establishment of the London University and the King’s 
College. These rival schools, rivals as I trust they will 
always be only in the talents of their professors and the 
excellence of their arrangements, have each of them 
laid down an academical course of medical instruction, 
which appears to be complete in all its parts, and which 
must have the most salutary influence on the character 
and qualifications of the future members of the pro¬ 
fession. 

The perusal of the foregoing pages may, I hope, en¬ 
able my readers to form a tolerably accurate conception 
of the progress of practical medicine, of the obstacles 
which it has had to encounter, of the degree in which it 
has overcome these obstacles, and of its present state of 
improvement. This I am not disposed to underrate; 
but at the same time I must acknowledge, that when I 
reflect upon the immense mass which has been written 
on the subject, the result seems scarcely adequate to the 
labour that has been bestowed. I may, therefore, be 
pardoned if I offer a very few remarks on the means by 
which, as it appears to me, the object in view might be 
more effectually attained. 

This, I conceive, should be attempted precisely upon 
the same plan as in other departments of science;—in 
the first place, by a more careful exposition of facts; 
and, secondly, by a more careful generalization of them. 
In medicine there are various circumstances which 
render it less easy to ascertain the facts than in most 
other cases. These depend partly on the nature of the 
subject, and partly on the situation and character of the 


A BIOGRAPHICAL, CYCLOPEDIA 


366 

observer. It was the shrewd remark of a learned pro¬ 
fessor that in medicine there are more false facts than 
false opinions. On all topics, either historical, scien¬ 
tific, or literary, mankind possesses a strong avidity for 
the marvellous. From the consideration of the human 
mind, the love of novelty is one great principle by 
which the attention is excited and the intellectual 
powers are called into action. Hence, in a rude state of 
society, nearly the whole art of medicine consists in the 
dexterous employment of this agent, and hence it is 
vtill found the most effectual method of attracting the 
notice of the multitude, who are incapable of close rea¬ 
soning or calm investigation. 

Perhaps one of the most easy and at the same time 
the most effective means of counteracting this mischiev¬ 
ous influence, would be never to receive the evidence 
for any medical facts upon the authority of a single 
individual. They should, if possible, emanate from 
associated bodies, either from public hospitals, medical 
schools, or societies, the officers of which may afford 
their united testimony to the alleged facts. Another 
point which appears to me of vital importance, and 
which bears essentially upon every department of medi¬ 
cine, is that nothing should be received without the 
name of the author. The custom of anonymous writ¬ 
ing, which has of late increased to so great an extent, 
has produced the most unhappy effects, both on the 
state of medical science and on the character of its pro¬ 
fessors; it has given rise to a degraded and depraved 
taste, no less at variance with honour and honesty, than 
with the spirit of scientific research. I will venture to 
assert that no man ought to publish any statement or 
any opinion to which he would scruple to attach his 
name. It may occasionally happen that an individual 
of a timid or a modest disposition may, by this re¬ 
striction, be deterred from detecting an error or con¬ 
troverting a train of false reasoning, but the loss which 
might by these means be incurred would be amply re- 


OF MEDICAL HISTORY 367 

paid by the greater authenticity and the greater cor¬ 
rectness of our medical publications. 

With respect to the second suggestion, the more ac¬ 
curate generalization of facts, when the facts them¬ 
selves are fully substantiated,—this must be accom¬ 
plished by the due exercise of judgment and sagacity, 
and can scarcely be directed by any general rules. I 
may remark, however, that one obvious mode of attain¬ 
ing this end is to arrange our insulated facts, as much 
as possible, in the form of statistical tables, by which 
we may readily observe their connection with or rela¬ 
tion to each other, and may thus be prevented from 
forming a hasty or unauthorized conclusion, derived 
merely from single cases or individual observations. 

Another important means of obtaining the object in 
view is to preserve great precision in the use of tech¬ 
nical and scientific terms. How many controversies 
have occupied the mind for ages, and have filled almost 
innumerable volumes, which have essentially turned 
upon the definition of a word? How frequently have 
remedies been prescribed, not for the symptoms, but 
for the name of a disease? How frequently has an 
article of the materia medica been employed, not from 
an experience of its actual effects, but from some nomi¬ 
nal property assigned to it by an imperfect analogy or 
imaginary quality? The means that have been pro¬ 
posed to check these aberrations, to rectify the above- 
mentioned errors, and to reduce medical science to its 
appropriate and correct limits, are indeed few and 
simple, and not of difficult application. But there is 
one essential requisite, without which they can be of 
no avail,—a mind disposed to the reception of truth, 
determined to follow it wherever it may lead the in¬ 
quirer, united to a high sense of moral obligation, which 
may induce the medical practitioner to bear in mind 
that his profession is a deposite placed in his hands for 
the benefit of mankind, and that he incurs an awful 
degree of moral responsibility who abuses this sacred 
trust, or diverts it to a base or selfish purpose. 
the; end. 


A 




































o 

% 

o 



• Va r'> * 


o 


^ 4> . 


'* \ A A *. 

a6 ^ ° • * A <(> o 

.(y . >■'•♦ A* o ° w «„ <J> A .«.*•„ "^o 

^ o * ■rfSSW' C J'^/rT^L -r O 

-P \ \ V cNXXWTTO tf* >-' ^ ^ 

■*fe ^ • 







<*■ ^ 

* ^>v ^ 

• ** 0 « 

Ar, 

* ^ +&m** & ^ - 

° 4 . » “ 0 A 0 <P. " ’ ‘ A °-*- * • - « 

. ^ V 5 ►'i'i*- ^ v AVI'- cv 

• Va* 'MA’. ^ a* » 




° -*■^ 

• o ”» * 

f 0 ' ^ ’• ,1 ' A 

-v <<y • y • ®- v A * s 



^ * * . * a 

*> * ■ ’ a 

v %> A vffc % 

'ii %*$■ •* 

.* ”„WW.* AA 

' <?y & * ^r^> v * ^ ^ 

o v t • L ' * * o A x o ° -° * <* 0 > 



* ® •» 0 0 

*■ A *■ 

A f ^ : 

f • a>** 

4 <y %* • 



* v> V ; 

* <iy %±» 

* * » * JS G 

% ^ C U ♦W^ ^ 

+JU A * ’ 


4 O. 

> A/ ^Cv * 

♦ N.^ ^ + 

*i ^ O v 

^ -\^ ... %. * oVo ' ,f° 



-o . * - A ^ . . 

4$ o 0 " 0 ♦ 

. <► 'V 

.V o' 


O v 




^ \ 4> s* 

<*> a'. ^ ^ . v r vL^. 

- ti -#M#- : 

* aVA. J o t, vP 

♦ .fej;fe. y y °„_ 

" o . 

0 - -* — ^.- ^ 


*v *.,.• y o 




* A <v *, 

.-^ .« ::;% ” .o^ .-‘fc -o 

v tfooW^ «• v/ * 

O V 







• ■ 0 ' A U P, *•■'*’ <{'• <=> * o . O .. 

* ^ vv ^ v' ,•••'„ ^c\ ,o f 


vP C, 


- : 
4 • 



f « 




; % °o 

‘AVi'' ,0^ ^ -- 



° * » a A <. 

A c 0 " ® ♦ ^ 

^ ^ ‘C\vA\n , \ ^ *y 

'"O ^ ; A 


* A )V > 

* ^ • 


C * 

sl> *7 



° A^vP 

* «? o 

”V <L K 

A.* * 0^ 

,o^ t • o 

0 + " o 


+£.„<( 


0 


* -V ^ •> 

V V 4 -O' -.. 

A .^*. *■+ <$ V 

*» 




0 ~ 


> «5 ^ l ° jP vv - ^ o•" 

<o ^ « / i • % ^O * + ^ V 0 o“ r\ * & * J <T\ ^ ‘ « r\ 

v. y ... *#• °-° a° <!> •«’ -v °t *oT»’ .cr 

>.., v »^«WV. A A','.‘ > '. ^ v V *A - /. O „.. 



•W 


r . rv 











j& % ,*••. "<sv " o^ . i, *» ”*b <4- s . • * • * Vj> ,<y • L '' » 

A \ ^ xv ^V ^ ^ ^ ♦ &d[//y5b •* <N % >> < £?{} /6y5> * 

A * ' . . \\; .ft .. ^ * W \\/j , S> rs « 'vvv\\ i </* w V K^sXil/r'- . <-k 




*° V '* 

^ -TT, • ’ y 

XT .<*«* > V *LXL> <X> 

4X X> > *VfMV. Nfc 


V ‘- 1 x 

•o ^ .a *VSiV. % 


0 N ° 




O. * 0 N 0 ° 


C A«* 

4 £ %> • 





^ -rn^bx XX . ,, t 
I I. „ XX 

r . v? 'o . , 4 *\ <* 

<J> " 0^ .•“*♦ ^O V& 4 .”"'’ 

«-& * o 4 SNv <* ^ + O 

\ v xx.A\uv,<, ^ ^ •» \N ^ 

*£> 4 K <*& ° 

+* 0 




X° ^ . \z20fflFar > 4. 

^ \~'^y/P-* * n a 

V‘ : '•’ X 

i V c • • 


4 O. 

A e o % 

X «**' 4v^ ^ ^ 

^ ^ -X|4X.° 

* t VA J vsHtoninjl^? o 4 V 

\> * aV “K &A PX * 4> ^ 

^v 'v. * 


X<X 



o V 




H° ^ ^ 

^ ‘ f “ ° J 0 f 0 ° , . o ^ " 1 


° m k 


A <, 

o « « „ <$>, 




<- *'~ . 4 ' , G r < 

* 0 ^ • 4 " • 
C° 


..«• X ^ '»•■• „ s ^ 

« , "■%, C° XX>'- °° X .VSSStoir* X 

* 4^°^ ® x° V „ „ /H-r 

^ o '"Xxx • o X -aX o_ v 

r *•.-•!■ X °w. *•■»• i° X *•-'• ,« 


X/ 4 

Q v 


4 

X ^ " 



*' X/V 7 ,° 

Ss *W///L » ^ » 




'> v v ** ^ 

\ %> ■& ♦ ^ .x 

. Vv M a ^ .' ^ v 

•#»,• x*v 

* <■;• « V X Xr * A v 

^ <L V CV’ Al «b ^ 4 . J , 

* ^ ,0* X ^ X °o X 0 “ 0 * 


o 

rX «r ^ °- 

,CX Xf 

X' ,*■'•* ' o o 0 " ® ■* 

#» c° ° 

^ ^ 'JZm^, . x ^ ^ o ^ x 

\ ^' i - 

^ ; "' x ^ v x ^ ^ 

* A X ^ -» o ^j ' ■■ x * X * XX X^ 

* ^ * * . > 4 A <**•».••* ,0 V 




o «\ 
^ v V 
<r*^ 


Xa X 
^ 0 


4> O 

0 0^ ,0 
s ”'x %. A° 





£> rt 0 


Vtv «> b~ "d' * <<^ 7 //^'* 

X *X^ .x ^ Xd ■'*- 
A- V • ' ' ^ 

> j -V w^* ; xx i^R* : /\ xx 

tf- ts> X.X A <V , 0 ^ x> '«>.»■* A 

c° y*/rfoL'- ° \ c <£$!%>' v o'* ' 

-A o^ 



^0^ 





A O. 

x? v<v 


• 0 ^ 6 . ^ aV CV 

4 o ; V % 

jo* O v % ^txi% c 



..* s ^0 


; ^ ; 

.* J> % *. 

’X XX— 



> >° ^ 

‘-o^'(P \ *•■'• 

\ <y X> , 

• x / 

- sP S % * V V 




X.«' 4 0 












































